Dialogue: Don't weep at sport failure, just do something about it

ARTHUR WHELAN, who in January criticised the direction of New Zealand sport in the buildup to Sydney, says we have gone backwards since then.


The past two weeks have been agony, but we are destined for more Olympic torture in 2008 unless there are some culture changes and hard work. The Olympics were to have been part of the greatest 18 months in our sporting history (remember the rugby World Cup?).

It's easy to look back with regrets. If only we hadn't had such bad luck. If only there had been some leadership at Government level at the end of the 1990s. If only Labour wasn't so hypocritical about sport now.

If only we had woken up to the example of the Australian Institute of Sport 10 years ago when we saw its results at the Commonwealth Games in Auckland. If only we had followed up that deal we set up with them to use those facilities.

If only we had an elite-athlete system that provided financing to people when they needed it instead of waiting for them to win world championships first, as in Rob Waddell's case. If only track and field wasn't in disarray.

If only the people with talent weren't working like dogs to pay off student loans. If only the America's Cup hadn't vacuumed up the sponsorship money the New Zealand Olympic Committee was looking for last year.

If only, if only ...

But it's hard to be positive when some of these major problems are still with us. They were with us at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, when the Government of the day neatly misrepresented the criticisms as an attack on our athletes.

Now there are new problems. We are going backwards.

The change of Government is no consolation. Labour does not care about sport, despite what the Prime Minister said this week about the importance of paying for it. Remember the Budget? A whopping $46 million for arts, a tenth of that for elite sport. The amounts don't just speak for themselves, they shriek.

These parts of the Budget were in a section called "building a national identity." As a sometime scholar of New Zealand history, I can say confidently that in terms of national identity, the arts do not rate here compared with sport - never have done and never will. Put bluntly, our national identity is founded on sporting glory, agriculture, the occasional genius, and fighting with distinction in wars on the other side of the planet.

I have nothing against the arts - in fact I'm an appalling, mostly self-taught sketcher and a bad guitarist - but a "gold-medal" achievement in theatre will never, ever stop shoppers in the supermarket aisles the way Waddell did. Paintings don't do that. I want my taxes spent on sport, not the arts. I want gold on black, and not on canvas.

The America's Cup regatta will again be a huge drain on sponsorship funds in the buildup to an Olympics. I remember listening in disbelief at the public money being spent in anticipation of expected fortunes that did not come. The Cup is not enough; the Cup is not value for money.

In one area, a rescue mission cannot come too soon. Day after day, disappointment after disappointment, we were haunted by the images of Peter Snell, Jack Lovelock, John Walker and Yvette Williams. Track and field is in crisis. The money for the Sydney athletes' high-performance director ran out just weeks before the Games. And there are no obvious successors to the people we sent, who in some cases had cruel experiences.

It's not completely grim. As always, we competed fairly.

There are signs that our high-performance sport system is becoming streamlined, at last. It was unbelievable that we had so many academies around the country. And at least Labour has a ministerial review of sport under way, although having a committee on the go is always useful to a Government that wants to be seen to be doing something.

There might be action if enough people suggest that someone else might get the air-conditioned ministerial limousine. After 17 years in journalism, believe me, it's the only language those guys understand.

And it would help to have bigger crowds at local sports events, not just Super 12 rugby, to build some of the intensity that our top guys pay to experience overseas. One of the things I noticed as a sports reporter after my own dismal rugby career ended in accident and emergency one day, is that New Zealanders are reluctant to get down to the sports grounds.

Perhaps it's time for some lateral thinking. Given the number of New Zealand teams competing in Australian competitions, maybe a professional kapa haka group behind the Kiwi goal lines would help to create some atmosphere. Perhaps a way to rebuild interest and the numbers participating would be a television series based around a sports roadshow touring the country and at each venue organising enrolments to get numbers up, holding a working bee followed by a barbecue and a celebrity touch or cricket match. These are all just ideas but we have to organise and start somewhere.

Australia failed in Montreal, set up its institute, and reaped the rewards. Britain failed in Atlanta, established a national academy, and has done well in Sydney. The Dutch spent 10 years rebuilding their swimming programme.

I don't want to spend another two weeks in 2008 sending e-mails to shattered athletes urging them not to give up and promising more cash to swimmers for altitude training. And I don't want to hear "if only ... "

* Arthur Whelan is a Herald journalist. Submissions to sport can be sent to the Ministerial Review of Sports Fitness and Leisure, Box 99516, Newmarket, Auckland.