No 143: Van Welie wins Commonwealth Games silver (2002)
Jeff Wilson had already patented the nickname "Goldie" but Liz van Welie was embraced as the golden girl of Otago sport.
The swimmer with the super smile might have looked like an angel but she was all business in the pool.
One of the elite swimmers in the stable of the great Duncan Laing, van Welie started collecting New Zealand titles for fun when she moved from Alexandra to Dunedin.
She qualified for the Sydney Olympics, reaching the semifinals of the 200m butterfly and finishing 15th overall.
Her greatest moment came in Manchester two years later when she won silver in the 400m individual medley.
Van Welie was sixth in the 200m fly final on the final day, then produced her medley silver effort just 20 minutes later with a personal-best time of 4min 44.56sec.
"I tried to believe in myself and realise the potential of my mind," she later said.
"If you have done the hard work, you are a bloody fool not to believe in yourself."
On her return to Dunedin, van Welie also gained a $25,000 car after being named one of the two most popular New Zealand athletes based on a public vote.
Two years after her Manchester heroics, she was heartbroken to fail to qualify for the Athens Olympics, and she retired shortly after.
