Swimming New Zealand to Operate at Reduced Funding

Photo Courtesy: Wikipedia

by Dave Crampton, Swimming World Contributor.

Swimming in New Zealand has lost nearly a third of its funding from High Performance Sport New Zealand, (HPSNZ) with a $400,000 reduction – its biggest for several years, it was announced today.

Swimming will receive $900,000, for the next two years, after receiving $1.3m this year. Swimming funding has dropped $100,000 for each of the previous two years, in part due to disappointing performances at the Commonwealth Games.

HPSNZ’s $35m investment considerations include past performance against agreed KPIs, future potential, and the quality of high performance programmes and campaigns.

New Zealand swimmers failed to reach a final at the Rio Olympics, yet Swimming New Zealand’s swimming strategy has a top strategic priority of having one of the leading high performance programmes in the country.

A concern for HPSNZ must also be that the Swimming NZ high-performance and coaching programmes appear to have minimal pull for the country’s top swimmers, most who swim offshore.

Of the few remaining in New Zealand, at least one swimmer has turned their back on the High Performance Centre since new Swimming New Zealand Head Coach Jerry Olszewski was employed in September.

Another strategic priority is multiple Olympic medals and top eight finishes, which has not been achieved for 20 years.

However, Paralympians like Rio gold medallist Sophie Pascoe will welcome a major boost in funding after Paralympics New Zealand received a $550,000 funding boost – a 32 percent increase – taking core investment to $2.25m.

High Performance Sport New Zealand chief executive Alex Baumann – a multiple swimming gold medallist for Canada in 1984 and a former Swimming Queensland Chief Executive – complimented the success of the para-athletes.

“The performance of the New Zealand Paralympic Team in Rio, and the outstanding levels of interest that New Zealanders have shown in their achievements, has elevated Para-Sport to an incredible level.”

Paralympics New Zealand chief executive Fiona Allan, who is currently in Japan on a strategic planning trip for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, was thrilled.

“It is a huge endorsement for our high performance plan and personnel. To complement this government investment, we will continue to concentrate on public fundraising, grants and commercial partnerships to assist us in covering the remainder of our Games operational costs and to achieve the goals set out within our Towards 2020 organisational strategy, including the growth and development of Para-Sport at a community level.”

Swimming New Zealand Chief Executive Scott Newman and board chairman Bruce Cotterill are not returning calls. In a statement Swimming New Zealand is apparently seeking clarification of its funding. Baumann has given that clarification saying on Radio New Zealand that the organisation’s decision to strip NZ Swimming of $400,000 in funding is final.

All commentaries are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Swimming World Magazine nor its staff.

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Sandeep Vats

7 years ago

Good