Olympic buildup threatened
BIRMINGHAM: The coach of New Zealand sensation Lewis Clareburt has suggested a lack of support from Swimming New Zealand has left his buildup to the 2024 Paris Olympics in a dire state.
Clareburt broke a 16year gold medal drought for New Zealand male swimmers by smashing the Games record on his way to glory in the 400m individual medley. Less than 24 hours later he added another to his tally in the 200m butterfly.
However, despite this success and a clear upward trajectory of form over the past four years, Gary Hollywood said the swimmer and his team did not know how they would fund their ideal Olympic programme.
‘‘We’ve recruited Ryan Lochte’s former coach, Gregg Troy, to work with us through to Paris and we’d like to go over there [Florida] and do a camp with him and set up some racing there, but we don’t know where that money’s coming from yet, so I don’t know if that’s going to be possible,’’ Hollywood said.
‘‘It’s never easy, and I think Lewis said the Aussies might have about 30odd million put into their swim programme each year. In New Zealand, it’s barely a million.’’
In fact, High Performance Sport New Zealand has tagged $1.1 million a year of core investment towards swimming from 2022 to 2024, an amount which puts it behind nine other sports.
Hollywood said he and Clareburt had been relying on help from private backers just to make ends meet.
‘‘I’ve never had a budget, personally speaking, for the last six years, so I don’t have anything to work with. Without some of the private sponsorship we’ve had I just don’t know where we’d be right now.’’
Swimming New Zealand chief executive Steve Johns acknowledged the tremendous achievement the duo have ticked off in Birmingham.
‘‘Both Gary and Lewis have received significant support from Swim NZ and HPSNZ well in excess of other athletes and programmes — in recognition of their fantastic achievements. 3am/5am: Women’s medal matches (Joelle King); 4am/6am, men’s medal matches (Paul Coll) 6am: Men’s high jump final (Hamish Kerr); 7.05am, women’s shot put final (Maddi Wesche) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 14 16 17 18 18 20 20 20 20
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