The team consisted of four competitors: an athlete (Arthur Porritt), a boxer (Charlie Purdy), and two swimmers (Clarrie Heard and Gwitha Shand).

The rowers were Clarrie Healey,[3] W. Ryland, H. Sharpe, and W. Coombes (all from Wanganui), C. J. Adams, R. G. Croudis,[4] E. T. Hegglun, and W. Pinkham (all from Blenheim), and W. Sergison (Christchurch).

[5][6] Darcy Hadfield was a dominant single sculler at the time but he had become professional in 1922 and was thus no longer eligible to compete at the Olympics.

[7][8] Randolph Rose was the Australasian champion over 3 miles and was one of the Olympic nominees,[1][9] but he was operated for appendicitis in March 1924 and could not go to Paris.

[10] The other athletics competitors, Arthur Porritt, was at the time studying in England as a Rhodes scholar at Magdalen College in Oxford.

[12] Another New Zealander, Ernest "Buz" Sutherland from Palmerston North, competed for South Africa finishing fifth in the decathlon.

In the women's 400 metre freestyle, Shand won her heat on 13 July,[21] and she qualified in the semi-final the following day by coming third.