It’s great when a plan comes together

Nico Porteous and Zoi SadowskiSynnott were just eight years old when systems that took them to Olympic glory were set up.

Two New Zealand 16-year-olds winning bronze medals at the PyeongChang Games just a couple of hours apart made headlines around the world on Thursday.

But their success was no coincidence. Instead, it was the result of a programme set up by Snow Sports NZ to put this country back on the Winter Olympics map.

Snow Sports NZ CEO Martin Toomey said yesterday that back in 2010, when Porteous and Sadowski-Synnott were still at primary school, plans to boost their sports were formalised.

‘‘We’ve had a programme in place for eight years,’’ said Toomey, who started his current

"The 12-year-old who loves their snowboarding or skiing, will think now that at 16, they could have an Olympic medal." Snow Sports NZ CEO Martin Toomey

role in 2012.

‘‘It’s a serious one and it takes that long to develop the coaches, the infrastructure, the relationships with the ski areas and all of those things where everyone is working together.

‘‘In the six years I’ve been in the role, our big focus was to make sure we do all of that.

‘‘We’ve built the training facility in Wanaka that’s got a High Performance Sport NZ gym. So the athletes are athletes, they’re not just kids who ride boards or slide on skis.

‘‘The whole programme is set up to be a professional sports programme, for athletes on skis and snowboards.’’

Toomey says the talents of Porteous and Sadowski-Synnott were identified a few years ago and considerable time and money was invested in them to get them onto podiums at PyeongChang.

‘‘These guys have been on the radar for three to four years as they’ve risen through our ranks through junior programmes,’’ said Toomey, who was the All Blacks’ fitness trainer from 1994 to 1999.

‘‘So they’ve been supported in terms of coaching, assistance to get overseas to train and compete, because they have to spend about six months of the year in the northern hemisphere, which is costly.

‘‘The majority of our support goes to getting people to events, providing the technical support like wax technicians, having people look after their skis and boards, so they’re in great condition, and also coaching.’’

For New Zealand to become a noteworthy nation in snow sports, considerable financial support was needed, and that came as increased funding from High Performance Sport New Zealand.

Toomey said when he started at Snow Sports NZ, the money from HPSNZ was $1 million over the entire winter sports programme. That has been raised dramatically.

‘‘In the last couple of years we’ve been getting around $2m a year,’’ he said of the money just for snow sports.

‘‘So we’ve been well funded and that was on the back of the talent we knew we had sitting in front of us, and given the right opportunities that they would deliver the medals.

‘‘It was a bold move on their behalf to invest up front, so it’s great to get the medals because it returns that faith.’’

Toomey expects the high level of funding to continue and the success of Porteous and SadowskiSynnott to inspire more to take up

the sport and also dream of Olympic glory.

‘‘There will be a flow-on effect, which is really positive for the sport and inspiring to kids, that’s what’s great to me,’’ he said.

‘‘The 12-year-old who loves their snowboarding or skiing, will think now that at 16, they could have an Olympic medal.’’

Toomey is leaving Snow Sports NZ next week to become CEO of the Winter Games, and with Porteous and Sadowski-Synnott now having bigger profiles, there’s likely to be considerably more interest in their events in New Zealand this year.