Cook Islands at the 2008 Summer Olympics events (with the exception of weightlifting, where the first round was the only round) and did not go on to win medals. Pera was the nation's flag bearer at the ceremonies. The Cook Islands are a collection of fifteen islands lying in the South Pacific Ocean that are governed under a single parliamentary entity. Some 10,000 people live in the dependency. The country is in a free association with New Zealand, who handles the nation's external affairs. The Cook Islands became self-governing in 1965. 23 years later, the Cook Islands sent their first delegation to the Olympics at the 1988
History of the Cook Islands landing in the islands when he set foot on Rakahanga. 1773 — Captain James Cook explored the islands and named them the Hervey Islands. Fifty years later they are renamed in his honour by Russian Admiral Adam Johann von Krusenstern. 1821 — English and Tahitian missionaries land in Aitutaki, become the first non-Polynesian settlers. 1823 — English missionary John Williams lands in Rarotonga, converting Makea Pori Ariki to Christianity. 1858 — The Cook Islands become united as a state, the Kingdom of Rarotonga. 1862 — Peruvian slave traders took a terrible toll on the islands of Penrhyn, Rakahanga and Pukapuka