2000 Olympics: Gold medal drive takes off

By Suzanne McFadden

A handful of New Zealand's elite athletes will be given everything they need to win gold at the 2000 Olympics.

The group, totalling no more than 25, will receive extra help from a pool of around $7 million from the Sports Foundation over the next 18 months, which are shaping up to be the most glorious spell in New Zealand's sporting history.

The All Blacks, Silver Ferns and New Zealand cricket team will also benefit from the initiative in their world championship year, even though they generate their own funding.

But the bulk of the money will go towards current world champions, trying to turn them into Olympic champions.

Although the athletes targeted are confidential, it is certain that world rowing champion Rob Waddell, world equestrian champions Blyth Tait and Mark Todd, world discus champion Beatrice Faumuina, world boardsailing champions Barbara Kendall and Aaron McIntosh and world No 1 triathlete Hamish Carter will be recipients.

Sports Foundation chief executive Chris Ineson said one team was also involved in the Olympic project. Based on recent funding, it would have to be the New Zealand women's hockey team, who finished sixth at last year's World Cup and are recognised as potential medallists in Sydney.

No financial amount has been settled yet - the athletes are being interviewed to work out how much they require.

"We have to sit down with these key sportspeople and their coaches and ask them, `What do you need to help you win an Olympic medal?'," Ineson said.

"We will leave no stone unturned. No matter how radical or revolutionary it may be, we'll have a look at it. We want to turn these world champions into Olympic champions, and keep the ones we've got right up there."

A panel of three experienced sports administrators has been set up to deal with the athletes' needs.

The team are Sir Ron Scott, chef de mission for the 1984 Olympics, Dave Gerrard, a former Commonwealth Games gold medallist and Olympic chef de mission, and Olympian Katie Sadleir, who manages the foundation's high performance unit.

Sir Ron said the country's top athletes needed to have "everything right" with the pressure to perform.

The project would help athletes and their coaches develop an individual plan incorporating "leading edge technology, sports science and medicine, coaching, training, competition and motivational factors."

The foundation is also taking the unusual step of helping the national sides in rugby, cricket and netball.

Ineson: "It's part of our vision for New Zealand to do extremely well over the next 18 months - the biggest sporting carnival in New Zealand's history."

The All Blacks, Silver Ferns and Black Caps have been given money for a computer video analysis program to aid them in their build-up to their various world championships this year.

Ineson said the program, developed here and across the Tasman, would be used for other sports teams in the future, like the women's hockey team.

Team New Zealand were also recipients of funding for a sophisticated computer program, which would be adapted and adopted by the New Zealand yachting team for the Sydney Olympics.