Editorial: Long-term pledge needed to sport

If there were even a skerrick of doubt about the fate awaiting New Zealand at the Sydney Olympics, it was surely erased at Australia's swimming trials. World records tumbled to our neighbour's bevy of stars while our swimmers struggled to post qualifying times.

The message was clear: New Zealanders will get heartily sick of the strains of Advance of Australia Fair this September; and the pain will be the greater because the prospect of God Defend New Zealand being heard on more than a sprinkling of occasions is slim indeed.

Decades of neglecting our elite sportsmen and women is set to reap the ultimate whirlwind at a venue which might have been selected for our benefit.

Given such a dismal outlook, it is hardly surprising that the Government is in the business of preemptive strikes. Last week, it announced a $16 million one-off payment to fund the country's three high- performance sports centres for the next four years. The centres - at Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin - were confirmed just last month as New Zealand's response to Australia's hugely successful Institute of Sport. Finally, after the establishment of 17 sporting academies of varying quality, there is agreement on the road forward.

Unfortunately, such unity is some 25 years late. More unhappily still, it will be the best part of a decade before we see the full fruit of these high-performance centres. Australia set up its institute after performing dismally at the 1976 Montreal Olympics; it was still suffering ignominy at the 1984 Olympics.

The recipe for success is long-term planning from sports administrators, a long-term financial commitment from the Government and a resigned patience from the public. Yet even now the Minister of Sport provides only an extra $1 million a year as part of a four-year commitment and talks of "winning more golds in the 2004 Olympics." A more distant horizon, and a bigger sum of money, need to be applied to the high-performance centres.

The Australian Government funds its Institute of Sport to the tune of about $120 million, or some $5 for every citizen. Add the largess of state governments and the spending on elite sports is three times the level a head of population that our Government contributes.

This miserly approach - and the obvious relationship between consistent funding and performance - will surely be highlighted by a pending Government review of sport.

Fortunately, we can learn from Australia's mistakes and do not need to duplicate the Canberra institute's $140 million complex. The high-performance centres will use existing facilities. Within 18 months, up to 1500 sportsmen and women - up from 650 under present funding for elite sport - will be part of their programmes.

If modelled effectively on Canberra, an integrated training environment will benefit those athletes, involving direct and continuous input from coaches, sports science and sports medicine experts. An often amateur approach will make way for professionalism and innovation.

All these good intentions will, however, amount to nought if short-term thinking prevails. If, for example, coaches and programmes are chopped and changed because success is not achieved within a year or two. Or if Government commitment wavers.

Years of restoration are needed to fix years of neglect. For sports followers, the wait will not be pleasant. But, as Australia demonstrates, the payoff in national pride is spectacular.

The Olympics – a Herald series

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