Isaac McHARDIE / William McKENZIE

Isaac McHardie was born in Hamilton in July 1997 and started sailing at ten. He worked his way through most of what New Zealand has to offer, Optimist, P Class, Starling, 29er, Moth, SL16 and Nacra 17, and was winning on the world stage while still a teenager. Youth world champion in the SL16 in 2013, bronze in the 29er a year later, and part of the New Zealand crew that finished second at the Red Bull Youth America's Cup in Bermuda in 2017.

He joined up with Will McKenzie in the 49er in his late teens, sailing out of Royal Akarana Yacht Club. The pair won the under 23 world title and the Red Bull Foiling Generation world final in 2019, then spent five years knocking on the door of the senior podium. Fourth at the 2022 Worlds, bronze at the 2023 Europeans, fourth in The Hague where they won the medal race and qualified New Zealand for Paris.

In Marseille they turned it into silver, New Zealand's fourth 49er medal in a row after Peter Burling and Blair Tuke. They stepped away from Olympic campaigning after finishing seventh at the 2025 Worlds in Cagliari. McHardie has since finished his building apprenticeship and works as a qualified carpenter.

Will McKenzie was born in Auckland in February 1997 and came up the traditional way, starting in an Optimist and racing the 2012 Optimist Worlds in the Dominican Republic. He moved onto multihulls and took third at the 2015 Youth Worlds in the SL16 before settling into the front of a 49er alongside Isaac McHardie.

The partnership announced itself in 2019 with the under 23 world title and a win at the Red Bull Foiling Generation world final. From there it was a long, patient climb: fourth at the 2022 Worlds, third at Palma in 2023, bronze at the Europeans in Vilamoura, then a fourth in The Hague that secured New Zealand's Paris place. They arrived in Marseille as an outside bet and left with silver.

The two of them made the call to stop campaigning after Cagliari in 2025, mostly because funding a full cycle while sailing professionally never quite added up. McKenzie now lives in Sydney, works as an engineer, and has joined the Black Foils coaching setup with their old coach Matt Steven, feeding performance data to the boat from the coach booth.