Notable athletes also featured multiple medallist Nick Willis in the middle-distance running and the reigning Commonwealth Games champion and Rio 2016 bronze medalist Tom Walsh in the men's shot put.

2014 and 2018 Commonwealth Games champion David Nyika scored an outright quarterfinal victory to secure a spot in the men's heavyweight division at the 2020 Asia & Oceania Qualification Tournament in Amman, Jordan.

[12][13] New Zealand canoeists qualified one boat for each of the following classes through the 2019 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships in La Seu d'Urgell, Spain.

[14] Former software engineer Callum Gilbert, with Rio 2016 silver medalist Luuka Jones paddling along her way to fourth straight Olympics, was officially named to the New Zealand's slalom canoeing roster on 12 March 2020.

[16] Max Brown and Kurtis Imrie were officially named to the New Zealand canoe sprint roster for the Games on 21 April 2021, with the women's kayak squad, led by two-time defending Lisa Carrington, joining them two months later.

[25] The New Zealand Olympic Committee nominated the BMX rider Rebecca Petch to occupy the slot for the rescheduled Games on 17 June 2021.

[20] For the first time since Los Angeles 1984, New Zealand sent one male diver into the Olympic competition by finishing in the top eighteen of the men's springboard at the 2021 FINA Diving World Cup in Tokyo.

The nation's leading rider Melissa Galloway cited the disrupted preparations amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, EHV-1 outbreak and Brexit as the reason behind the withdrawal.

New Zealand women's field hockey team qualified for the Olympics by winning the gold medal on a goal difference over Australia at the 2019 Oceania Cup in Rockhampton, Queensland.

[48] New Zealand entered one male artistic gymnast into the Olympic competition by winning the gold medal and securing an outright berth at the 2021 Oceanian Championships in Queensland, Australia.

New Zealand qualified one gymnast each to compete in the men's and women's trampoline by finishing among the top eight nations vying for qualification at the two-year-long World Cup Series.

Alexandrea Anacan secured a place in the women's kata category, as the highest-ranked karateka vying for qualification from the Oceania zone based on the WKD Olympic Rankings.

[54] On 23 April 2021, the New Zealand Olympic Committee declined its quota place in the women's lightweight double sculls, having previously confirmed it from the 2019 Worlds.

[65] The men's 470 crew members Paul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox were named to the New Zealand team on 30 September 2020, with Rio 2016 Olympian Josh Junior completing the sailing selection at the 2021 Finn Gold Cup in Lisbon, Portugal.

M* = Medal race (double points); EL = Eliminated – did not advance into the medal race New Zealand shooters achieved quota places for the following events by virtue of their best finishes at the 2018 ISSF World Championships, the 2019 ISSF World Cup series, and Oceania Championships, as long as they obtained a minimum qualifying score (MQS) by 31 May 2020.

[68] Rio 2016 Olympians Chloe Tipple (women's skeet) and silver medalist Natalie Rooney were officially selected to the New Zealand team before the Games postponed on 24 March 2020.

Billy Stairmand and Ella Williams secured a qualification slot each for their NOC, as the highest-ranked and last remaining surfers from Oceania, at the 2019 ISA World Surfing Games in Miyazaki, Japan.

Tom Burns secured a spot in the men's lightweight category (68 kg) with a gold-medal triumph at the 2020 Oceania Qualification Tournament in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.

[78] New Zealand qualified four triathletes (two per gender) for the following events at the Games by finishing among the top seven nations in the ITU Mixed Relay Olympic Rankings.

The country qualified one male and one female archer at the 2019 Pacific Games in Apia, Samoa, through Olivia Hodgson and Adam Kaluzny beating their Australian competitors.

[87] When the New Zealand Olympic Committee declined the position, the Oceania qualification could not be reassigned within the region, but the seat was instead allocated to the highest-ranked player who had not qualified yet: the Hungarian Gergely Krausz.