KEY POINTS:
In sport there will always be winners and losers but when it comes to government funding, the sports themselves stand to win or lose, depending on results.
In 2006, following criticism Sparc was throwing good money after bad, they targeted nine sports for direct funding. Six - athletics,
cycling, rowing, swimming, triathlon and sailing - were Olympic sports. Three others - equestrian, hockey and kayaking - took the lion's share of the contestable funding pool.
The likes of badminton, basketball, football, shooting, synchronised swimming, taekwondo and weightlifting have shared about $8 million since Athens.
In all, close to $60m has been spent on high-performance Olympic sport since the start of 2005, at close to $6m per medal. It has been a controversial, exclusive strategy, but it might be starting to pay dividends.
Over the next three months, Sparc will again be reviewing their funding with a view to London 2012 and they have already said even more needs to be made available.
Some sports might be feeling the heat more than others and some have put themselves in a position to go banging on Sparc's door for more money.
Targeted sports:
Cycling
Sparc investment since 2005: $9,535,167
Beijing return: 2 medals (Hayden Roulston individual pursuit silver; Men's team pursuit bronze)
It surprises many that cycling is the biggest beneficiary of taxpayer monies but it carries the largest umbrella, looking after track cycling, road cycling, BMX and mountain biking.
The track team's success will have provided the biggest boost and should ensure funding remains high.
Hayden Roulston was the star but it is the promise of some of the younger riders like Jesse Sergent and Sam Bewley that has velo-heads really excited. Alison Shanks coming from nowhere 18 months ago to fourth best in the world is also a big boost.
Success on the track has other spin-offs, providing profiles for young riders who often get picked up by professional road teams, so funding can be diverted. If there has been a disappointment, it's that the expensive road base in Limoux, France, has failed to produce any excellent road medal prospects, remembering that Julian Dean and Joanne Kiesanowski were strutting their stuff long before that was established.
BMX and mountain biking remain small but strong sports and cycling has some ambitious plans to recruit endurance athletes from other sports to bolster their own track and road programmes.
Rowing
Sparc investment since 2005: $9,497,500
Beijing return: 3 medals (Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell double sculls gold; George Bridgewater and Nathan Twaddle pairs bronze; Mahe Drysdale single sculls bronze)
Despite having a programme that hinted at more than one gold and two bronzes, rowing remains close to New Zealand's model sport.
It hasn't been without controversy, most notably chief executive Craig Ross earning a conviction for mis-using funds to buy Italian rather than New Zealand-made boats. It is true, too, that there has been some dissatisfaction over the length of time it has taken to find a replacement.
On the water, however, it is a boom sport and with the world championships heading for Lake Karapiro in 2010 there hasn't been a better time to capitalise on the sport's growth potential.
In terms of development, Rowing New Zealand have always stated Beijing was a stepping stone for London, where they want a crew competing in every discipline.
Looking at the age of some of the Beijing and Athens winners, keeping Rob Waddell should also be a priority.
Sailing
Sparc investment since 2005: $8,083,125
Beijing return: 1 medal (Tom Ashley RS:X gold)
Ashley's gold was the first since Barbara Kendall's in 1992 and New Zealand's first sailing medal since Kendall and Aaron McIntosh won bronzes in Sydney. A New Zealander hasn't sat in a boat and won a medal since Craig Monk (bronze, Finn), Leslie Egnot and Jan Shearer (silver, 470s) and Rod Davis and Don Cowie (silver, Star) in Barcelona in 1992.
That's a poor record given the country's reputation for producing world-class sailors and the resources poured into the sport.
After Athens, where the sailors were accused of living a little too comfortably, there was a real will to put things right in Beijing. They were not helped by the fact the winds at Qingdao proved difficult to read.
Those complaints will only get New Zealand so far, however, as the cream still tended to rise to the top - Ashley being case in point.
You couldn't blame those who write the cheques for getting twitchy.
Swimming
Sparc investment since 2005: $6,615,250
Beijing return: 0 medals
Jan Cameron went on a PR drive before a swimmer got wet at the Water Cube and it continued right through the Games.
You can't blame her. Not only were there no medals and only two 'A' finalists but also, more worryingly, the perception is swimming in this country is falling incrementally behind the rest of the world.
Given the fact nearly every New Zealand kid has access to a pool, our lack of return is slightly perplexing.
Big decision time coming up: does swimming continue to potter along, producing middling swimmers content with setting PBs in ever greater numbers while waiting for the odd freak like Danyon Loader to appear, or do they change the paradigm and seek different solutions to trying to compete with Australia, the US, Great Britain and Japan who have poured in resources so they can dominate?
Might a solution lie in a buddy-type system with Australia, where we pay to hook up our most talented youngsters into their programmes?
Triathlon
Sparc investment since 2005: $4,327,000
Beijing return: 1 medal (Bevan Docherty bronze)
Once again our triathletes were very good - two top 10s in the women and Docherty taking bronze.
Add to that the fact we continually produce good age-group triathletes and the sport looks to be in healthy hands. They will often be hamstrung by the fact there are only six medals to give out, unlike the more specialised sports of cycling, swimming, cycling, rowing and athletics.
Athletics
Sparc investment since 2005: $3,980,625
Beijing return: 2 medals (Valerie Vili shot put gold; Nick Willis 1500m bronze)
On the face of it, a return to athletics glory days but look beneath the veneer and you still have an underachieving sport on so many levels.
Vili is a force of nature and Willis a beneficiary of supreme natural talent and the American college system but at home athletics is still struggling to engage with kids because of a lack of high-profile meetings and an absence of big-name drawcards. We used to see summer meetings that would attract the likes of Don Quarrie, Mary Decker, Alan Wells and Hasely Crawford, to name a few. Now the national champs are played out in a funereal atmosphere with nary a soul to see except athletes, officials and coaches.
Questions remain, too, about the sport's administration, particularly in the wake of the Liza Hunter-Galvan and Michael Aish non-selection affair. Beatrice Faumuina's early departure request did nothing for the image of her sport either, much like her phenomenal underachievement at the past two Olympics.
Still, two medals at a snip under $2m represents value for money.
Contestable funded sports
Hockey
Sparc investment since 2005: $4,945,000
Beijing return: 0 medals
Another sport that will be feeling justifiably twitchy, not so much for the fact they once again brought home no medals - there are, after all, only six to give out in this surprisingly competitive sport - but for the abject failure of the women's team. They seem unable to mount a tournament campaign with any confidence regardless of whether they have a coach who trampled on their egos (Ian Rutledge) or one that massaged them (Kevin Towns).
The realisation now must be that women's hockey structures in New Zealand are not good enough to produce teams with enough talent or mental toughness. Finishing last is unacceptable.
The men, on the other hand, were probably better than seventh but will rue a second's lapse of concentration against Spain and a tardy start against China that, in all likelihood, cost them a semifinal spot. They weren't good enough to win a medal but at least they showed some gumption.
Hockey is a perplexing sport when it comes to funding because it is, by nature, expensive to run two international-class programmes.
Equestrian
Sparc investment since 2005: $2,815,000
Beijing return: 0 medals For the second Olympics in a row, the equestrian team has disappointed.
In truth, while it might be a massively expensive sport to run, its costs in New Zealand are not that high because most good eventers tap into European stables.
Still, you'd hope that $2.8m was paying for slightly more than Blyth Tait and his staff. A medal every now and then would be nice.
Kayaking
Sparc investment since 2005: $1,751,874
Beijing return: 0 medals
The kayakers narrowly missed out on claiming a medal in Beijing but a fourth (Ben Fouhy) and two other finals represent a good Olympics and they deserve more money than they are getting. Steven Ferguson has proved he's one of the best athletes around - he competed in swimming in Sydney - and Erin Taylor looks one for the future.
