Precious Mckenzie - Tana

Precious McKenzie was a well known as a NZ weightlifter but he wasn't really from NZ. He was born in 1936 in Durban South Africa. He is 1.45m tall. He got his name when he was baptized. His mother called him Precious One because he survived a fever that almost killed him.

In his early childhood his Dad died from a crocodile attack. Because of this his mother started drinking so her kids got taken off her. They were looked after by foster mothers. Unfortunately these families didn’t feed him well which is why he is so short.

Precious wanted to be in the circus because of his good gymnastic but he can’t because of his skin colour. So he went to weightlifting and he won the bantamweight title.

Precious Mckenzie was not selected for the Empire games olympic because of his skin colour. They refused to have equal rights players. So he went to England where he competed for England in the 1996 Commonwealth games and he won the Commonwealth Title.