Snowboarding: Chill financial wind blows for snow sports

Sharper financial focus on those athletes with solid prospects of success in winter sports is the outcome of a review of winter high performance sport.

The review followed a disappointing outcome from the 16 New Zealanders who competed at the Vancouver Winter Olympics in February.

Four of the athletes made the top 16 of their discipline, but overall more was expected in a Games where there have been softer selection criteria than for summer Olympics.

Just who gets how much won't be revealed until next month's disbursement of contestable funding from the government agency Sparc.

But it became apparent yesterday there will be a harder line.

"It's unlikely New Zealand will ever match the financial investment of other countries, so if we're going to succeed internationally we have to do things differently," Sparc's general manager high performance Marty Toomey said yesterday.

He outlined a long-term strategic approach wherein "[we] are looking to invest in winter sports where there is the greatest potential for success over time".

That's a pointer to the Sochi Olympics in Russia in 2014 and the 2018 Games, venue still undecided.

Ski halfpipe and snowboard slopestyle may be included at Sochi, pending an IOC decision due by April.

Wanaka's Jossi Wells is world No 1 in the halfpipe; his brother Byron is ranked No 11; Shelly Gotlieb is world No 3 in snowboard slopestyle.

If accepted, it follows those disciplines will get significant support.

Snowboarder Kendall Brown, with a dislocated shoulder, got a courageous 15th on the halfpipe in Vancouver; skeleton racer Ben Sandford was 11th, 1.3s off fifth place.

Those sports with little immediate sign of progress face bleak news.

In the past four years, Sparc's core investment programme amounted to about $2.9 million. There is no sign how much will be on offer this time.

The review recommended the Winter Performance Programme continue to be run by the NZ Academy of Sport, with a close relationship between the WPP and national organisations such as Snow Sport NZ.

It also called for more emphasis on individual performance planning and world-class medical, strength and conditioning support for athletes.