The New Zealand Olympic team are taking the spirit of the games into one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Rio.

Since last year they've established a relationship with the Mangueira favela, a shanty town based in the shadow of Maracana Olympic stadium.

The Brazilian rhythmic fighting dance Capoeira is said to be a conversation between its players.

And for these children from Mangueira, who took our womens sevens team through their paces, they'll likely be talking about this for a long time.

"It's an awesome experience," said sevens star Portia Woodman. "We've been wanting to come out to these communities for a long time, and I guess these kids are just the same as us - they've got their sport that they love and that's capoeira and we're teaching them the sport that we love."

Capoeira isn't an Olympic sport, which is a shame because it's realistically the only way the residents of Mangueira might make it to the games, despite living next to a main Olympic venue.

The poorest of the poor simply can't afford the tickets, as highlighted when the Rio games opened in spectacular fashion.

Step in the New Zealand Olympic committee and the Ministry of Sport, a gift today of a thousand tickets to the games.

And there's more.

"On Saturday Peak clothing - our sponsor from China - brought boxes of gear for them - there's been tickets - there's been some training equipment, coaching skills and hopefully a lot of our equipment at the end of the game we'll also leave behind for them," confirmed NZ Olympic committee's Kereyn Smith.

And it's not just the locals who have benefited from today.

"Yeah loving it, it's awesome," responds sevens representative Tyla Nathan-Wong. 'These girls play basketball so it's cool to see them getting involved with rugby, great to be in amongst the community, and yeah it's awesome just to give back to these amazing people."

With so much focus on winning and losing, today our silver medalists shared in some golden moments.

Newshub.