Michelle Smith ninth in the preliminary swims with only the top eight advancing. Smith did not submit her qualifying time for the 400m freestyle event before the 5 July deadline but did so two days later with the Irish Olympic officials insisting they had been given permission to submit the qualifying time after the deadline. Smith applied for the event after she had arrived in Atlanta. After Smith qualified at the expense of Evans, the US Swimming Federation, supported by the German and Netherlands swimming teams, challenged a decision to allow Smith to compete but were unsuccessful. At a later conference, Evans
Sport in New Zealand and earned the Bronze medal at the 2014 FIFA Club World Cup held in Morocco. Nowadays, the "Navy Blues" are looking into the possibility of joining the A-League as the second New Zealand team after the Wellington Phoenix. Football is especially popular amongst young people. In 2017, football was played by 25,037 secondary school students, making it the fourth-most popular sport behind netball, rugby union and basketball. New Zealand hosted the 1999 FIFA U-17 World Cup and the inaugural FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in 2008. Athletics is New Zealand's second-most successful Olympic sport with 24 medals, of which 10