Gold standard for funding NZ elite sport
Does the way we fund our top athletes achieve the best results? Nicholas Boyack reports.
If you want to know why High Performance Sport New Zealand funds athletes, its telephone number spells it out. The number, 0800 GOLDMEDAL, reflects its desire to win gold in events like the Olympics and Commonwealth Games – events that New Zealanders rate highly.
Winning 16 medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, with more golds than in the previous Olympics, is at the top of its priority list. The aim for the Paralympic Games is 14 golds.
And winning gold at non-Olympic world championships in sports that New Zealanders rate highly, such as netball and men’s softball, is also up there.
When it comes to funding athletes in particular sporting codes, who gets backing and how much comes down to performance.
HPSNZ general manager of performance partnerships Scott Creswell says criteria for funding are based around past performance, potential, the
quality of a campaign and the individual sporting context.
‘‘Our current investment strategy is based on performance. The same four criteria are applied to all sports.’’
All codes are measured against that criteria, Creswell says. He rejects any suggestion the system is unfair on some sports.
Last December, HPSNZ allocated $36 million to a range of sports. One of the big winners was canoe racing, which was granted $1.9m for its 17 athletes in 2019. It had previously received $150,000.
That is a lot of money for a sport with a tiny footprint in New Zealand. Before Lisa Carrington emerged as a dominant force internationally, it was a code most Kiwis had probably never heard of.
The funding reflects the recent success achieved by Kayla Imrie, Caitlyn Ryan and Aimee Fisher in the K2 and K4 classes. Against all odds, they emerged from obscurity to be world ranked.
The trio combined with Carrington to create two boats and with two second placings at a world championship, they were suddenly seen as potential Olympic medallists.
With that status came funding.
Imrie, who was recently crowned Wellington Sportsperson of the Year despite being based in Auckland, went from struggling student and teacher aide to fulltime athlete.
The funding has been a lifechanger, allowing her to concentrate on training and focus on winning gold in Tokyo.
To succeed in such a gruelling sport, Imrie says she has to treat her body ‘‘like a machine’’. She now has the means to train harder and has access to a gym, physiotherapists and health insurance. Last week, she returned from Australia, where she was paddling 125 kilometres a week and putting in three hours a day at the gym.
While thankful for the opportunities the financial support has given her, Imrie describes the current model as ‘‘back to front’’ because in order to receive funding, athletes first have to prove themselves on the world stage.
In contrast to the hard-earned support the New Zealand canoe racing team now enjoys, are our world-class softballers.
The Black Sox are arguably New Zealand’s most successful sporting team. The team has a record that even the All Blacks can only dream of, having won six of the 16 world championships held since 1966, more than any other country.
At this year’s world championship, the Black Sox had their worst result in decades, placing fourth. The team had received $350,000 from HPSNZ.
By comparison, the New Zealand women’s national softball team, the White Sox, which has won only one world championship, in 1982, received $30,000. The team is ranked 11th in the world going into an Olympic qualifying tournament in September.
One player, 17-year-old Caitlyn Lewin, has been working 35 hours a week at Pizza Hut while she pursues her dream of playing in the Olympics. Her father, Tony Lewin, has been paying $15,000 for both Caitlyn and older sister Makayla to play for the national side.
The Black Sox’s comparatively poor performance in the latest World Championship could jeopardise future funding for Joel Evans, who in 2017 hit an automatic home run with bases loaded to claim the World Championship in Canada.
Evans, who has been in the team since 2010, works as a digger driver to earn the cash needed to represent his country, as well as to pay his mortgage.
Although his airfares are covered, he does not earn
anything when he is away.
‘‘I don’t think that is fair. I am an amateur and I have put in as much effort as the professionals . . . I work until 6 or 7 at night and then I have to go and train.’’
The current Black Sox lineup is young and Evans is worried that without more funding, the future could be bleak.
‘‘If the majority of them start buying houses, they will stop playing for New Zealand.’’
The Shaw family is in a unique position to comment on funding elite sport, with three generations having represented New Zealand.
Naomi Shaw captained the White Sox to their only World Series win in 1982. Her daughter, Kiri, was also a White Sox great, whose career highlight was playing at the 2000 Olympics.
Kiri has four children who are all talented athletes. The oldest, Denva, 19, is a member of the White Sox and is studying in America.
Sage, 17, is arguably the most talented of all, having played softball, baseball and sevens at an international level. He is also a highly regarded rugby player, touted as a future Hurricane.
Naomi said that when she was a White Sox in the 1980s, raising money was not the challenge it is today. ‘‘The community really got in behind you but those were the days when there were not so many sports.’’
Kiri played in an era where there was a lot of sponsorship from cigarette and alcohol companies, and later SmokeFree.
At the start of her career, the most she was asked to contribute was $500 towards overseas travel, but that increased significantly over time.
She recalls running quizzes, raffles, car washes and sausage sizzles to raise money.
With four talented kids, Kiri and husband Craig Wallace have had to raise a significant sum.
These days, with plenty of help from her mother, Kiri relies on hangi, movie nights, Lotto promotions, and has even run a golf tournament.
Social media has also helped, allowing the family to reach a bigger audience and not just rely on the softball community and friends. ‘‘Facebook is a real game-changer,’’ says Naomi.
But despite all their hard work, Kiri recently withdrew Denva from the Junior White Sox. ‘‘We just simply ran out of money.’’
Naomi, who works for Softball New Zealand, is not convinced by the current funding model for elite sport. Not only is it hard for minority sports like softball but it stops sports from growing their base, she says.
She would like to see the Government invest in up-andcoming athletes. She believes without funding, talented youngsters are giving up and it also disadvantages athletes in lower socioeconomic areas.
Funding more youngsters will help codes build a better base and ultimately increase the chance of producing world-class athletes, Naomi says.
Fundraising is something Kayla Imrie’s mother, Lynette, has had to do a lot of over the years. She also has a son, Kurtis, who dreams of Olympic gold. The young paddler had three or four years competing internationally without funding.
It costs up to $7000 to compete in Europe and that money had to come from the efforts of a supportive family.
‘‘We have had to do plenty [of fundraising], with two kids at junior worlds, selling raffles and the like. But that is just the sort of thing you have to do.’’
Kayla and Kurtis had also been lucky that a family
business provided sponsorship.
Lynette believes the current system can be unfair for young athletes who do not have a supportive network around them.
Without funding to get to world events, they have no chance of making the breakthrough required to get funding from HPSNZ, she says.
One code that appears disadvantaged by the emphasis on international success and world rankings is baseball.
Based around the Auckland Tuatara team, it is an emerging sport growing in popularity on the back of television coverage of professional leagues in America.
Like softball, it is organised around tournament play and for New Zealand teams that usually means travelling to Asia or America. Although Baseball New Zealand contributes up to $10,000 per team, that leaves individuals to find between $3500 and $6000.
Baseball New Zealand acting chief executive John Fellet has had ‘‘regular and healthy’’ discussions with HPSNZ and accepts baseball does not meet the funding criteria.
‘‘Baseball New Zealand accepts that regardless of whatever methods are used to determine what sports get High Performance funding, there will always be debate about which ones are more deserving,’’ he says.
The system is fair and transparent in that it rewards sports with the best chance of succeeding on the world stage, he says.
However, he has doubts about how success is measured. ‘‘Some competitions are more competitive or more prestigious than others and using a top 16 or medal chance as a yardstick does not always tell the full story.’’
Fellet cites the example of the All Whites going undefeated at the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
That meant a lot to Kiwis because of the ‘‘magnitude and competitiveness of football at that level’’ but the All Whites have no chance of achieving a high ranking.
In the end, winning gold medals is about talent and passion. That is something that Joel Evans has always had and he says that no matter what funding the Black Sox get, chasing World Series glory is his No 1 priority.
‘‘Playing for the Black Sox means everything to me.’’