Ian Gordon Ferguson, MBE, is New Zealand's most successful Olympian, competing in K1, K2, and K4 kayak events. He first competed at the Montreal, Canada Olympic Games in 1976 and again at Moscow, Russia Olympic Games in 1980. Ian Ferguson was born in Taumarunui and was a successful sportsperson at school achieving in running and rugby. He was also good at water sports, becoming a Palmerston North Boys High School's swimming champion. At the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles he won three gold medals. In the same year he was named New Zealand sportsperson of the year. In the 1985 New Year Honours, Ferguson was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire, for services to canoeing. New Zealand's flagbearer at the opening ceremony of the 1988 Summer Olympics, he went on to win another gold medal and a silver medal at that Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea. He was the first New Zealander to compete in five Olympic Games and his four gold medals is still the New Zealand record for an individual haul at the Games. In 1990 Ferguson started a kayak retail and hire business named Ferg's Kayaks. 

July 20th, 1952 in Taumarunui (Age 72)