High Performance Sport NZ investments announced

High Performance Sport NZ investments announced in final run up to Rio

High Performance Sport New Zealand (HPSNZ) has confirmed its 2016 investments into sports, as they enter the final run into the Rio Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Over the four-year Olympic and Paralympic cycle between London and Rio, HPSNZ will invest around $130 million into national sport organisations, as well as providing another $72 million in support directly to athletes through grants, scholarships and world-leading performance support.

“The bulk of investment through to Rio was committed in 2014, to give sports certainty for their planning. Today’s announcement reflects fine-tuning to ensure we get the final one per cent of gains that could be the difference between converting form into an Olympic or Paralympic medal or not,” says Alex Baumann, HPSNZ Chief Executive.

“To ensure these last gains are achieved a further $500,000 is being allocated to targeted sports and campaigns in 2016 to increase the probability of Kiwi athletes winning on the world stage. It’s a kind of war chest that will help sports leave no stone unturned”.

“Our performances over the past year give us confidence that we are on track to achieve our target of 14 or more medals at the Olympics and 12 Paralympic Golds in Rio. But there is still a lot of hard work to be done by our athletes in the next ten months, and this investment will support that.”

HPSNZ delivers investment to 14 targeted sports and also provides one or two year campaign investment to support specific campaigns. In today’s announcement:

· Rowing and cycling receive an additional $100,000, and $100,000, respectively on top of the $5.2M and $4.6M already committed to their campaigns to win multiple medals for New Zealand.

· Athletics and canoe racing both receive a top-up of $75,000 to provide additional support to their medal potential campaigns in their final push to Rio

· Paralympics receives an additional $55,000 to accelerate the development of some high gold medal potential Para athletes.

· Rugby League receives an additional $50,000 in 2016 to assist the Kiwis in preparation for the 2017 Rugby League World Cup being jointly hosted by New Zealand and Australia

· Freestyle 58kg wrestler Tayla Ford and trap shooter Natalie Rooney receive investment for the first time after a strong showing internationally in 2015.

· Men’s hockey has had a small decrease, and women’s football and swimming moderate decreases in investment after not meeting their agreed performance goals. (Men’s hockey missed direct qualification for Rio on a number of occasions. Women’s football failed to get out of the group stages of the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Swimming has missed a number of key performance indicators, although we are heartened by more recent performances).

“We have a performance driven approach with a clear strategy and investment framework. Tough calls have had to be made in some sports to reflect both past performance and future potential. However we believe these sports have the strategies, programmes and people in place to make gains in the future, and as such we have retained sufficient investment to ensure they can rebound and give themselves a chance in Rio.

As well as ensuring we are successful in Rio, HPSNZ is also working with sports to build sustainability in the high performance system so that New Zealanders win medals at the 2018 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, at Tokyo 2020 and beyond. One example of this was the creation of a $400,000 Emerging Talent PEGs programme this year.

As well as investing directly into sports, HPSNZ works closely with our leading athletes in the areas of strength and conditioning, performance nutrition, sports medicine, physiotherapy, biomechanics, sports psychology, and campaign planning. Some sports and athletes are also assisted with technology and innovation, including through HPSNZ’s Goldmine team of engineers, to help give them a competitive edge.

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