From the Chief Executive
Kia ora tātou,
I hope this HPSNZ Update finds everyone fit and well with some fond summer memories as we head into autumn.
Following the announcement of our HPSNZ investment decisions for 2025-28, our priority for the first three months of 2025 has been working with sports to transition to the new funding cycle.
That means working with our NSO partners on their Los Angles 2028 campaign planning to ensure they have the appropriate Athlete Performance Support and other resources to set their athletes up for success.
I want to acknowledge the work of the NSOs and the quality conversations they are having with us in challenging circumstances. We’re under no illusion that cost of doing business has increased significantly and each sport has its own specific challenges. As with many Government organisations, we had to work within a limited envelope of available investment. That makes it tough all round and it is a credit to our sporting partners that they are working positively and constructively on ways to achieve their high performance goals within the current constraints.
In high performance sport we always have our eyes on multiple horizons, and we don’t have to look far ahead to the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, and the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games.
The country’s winter sports athletes continue to produce encouraging results in the Northern Hemisphere as they look to secure Olympic and Paralympic qualification.
And the recent announcement of the Glasgow 2026 medal programme, including a fully integrated Para sport programme across six of the ten sports, with a Commonwealth Games record 47 medal events in Para disciplines, enables the 10 sports involved in those Games to get into their detailed planning.
In another milestone for early 2025, I am proud that HPSNZ is part of the newly formed Global Alliance for Female Athletes. This exciting initiative which you can read more about in this HPSNZ Update is already being described as a gamechanger by media and athletes alike.
Also in this HPSNZ update, with Milano Cortina in mind, we catch up with former Winter Olympian Katharine Eustace for her Games perspective, we hear from HPSNZ Head of Performance Psychology Dr John Sullivan on ‘The hidden game: How athletes manage mental health behind the scenes’. And we preview ‘The Power of Inclusive Leadership’ showcase at Performance Summit 2025.
Ngā mihi
Raelene
HPSNZ part of pivotal moment to advance women’s sport worldwide
Luuka Jones of New Zealand.
Credit: Alan Lee / www.photosport.nz
The signing of an historic global partnership earlier this month between four nations – New Zealand, Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom – has been described as a pivotal moment to advance women’s sport.
HPSNZ was one of four sports organisations to sign the Global Alliance for Female Athletes (GAFA) which will see leading health practitioners and sports scientists from the four nations join forces to help female athletes overcome prevalent health issues to reach their full sporting potential.
Skin suit collaboration contributes to Paris cycling success
AAP Image/Joel Carrett/ Photosport)
In the first of a three-part series, we reveal the details behind some of the technical innovations that led to New Zealand’s outstanding success at Paris 2024.
In any sport where wind resistance is a factor, to go faster you need to reduce drag. Achieving it is the challenge, even more so when time is short.
That was the scenario facing HPSNZ’s Goldmine Innovation team and Cycling NZ in their quest to find critical performance gains for New Zealand’s track cyclists as they headed to Paris 2024.
A truncated cycle following Tokyo meant it was a very compressed journey to find that performance edge says HPSNZ’s Head of Innovation, Simon Briscoe.
“It took an amazing collaborative effort between HPSNZ, Cycling NZ, our technology garment manufacturing partner, One Studio, and support from a philanthropic funder to get skin suits designed, tested, assessed and accredited in less than a year,” says Simon.
That tri-party collaboration contributed to New Zealand’s best ever results on the cycling track in Paris. But it is the story behind those results which is less well known.
Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic perspective – Katharine Eustace
Katharine Eustace
As we head towards Milano Cortina 2026 and the Winter Olympics and Paralympics, we will feature the thoughts, insights and memories of HPSNZ’s own former Winter Olympians and Paralympians, and those of our key Snow Sport NZ partners, as they recall their personal Games experiences and what those experiences have contributed to their current roles.
We sat down with Sochi 2014 Skeleton Winter Olympian and now HPSNZ Strength and Conditioning Coach, Katharine Eustace, to share her story.
The hidden game: How athletes manage mental health behind the scenes
By Dr John Sullivan, HPSNZ Head of Performance Psychology
In the second of our series on specific areas of mental health and performance, John looks at the demands of an elite athlete lifestyle which makes mental wellbeing crucial and how athletes can manage it behind the scenes. Links to further helpful information are provided at the end of the column.
The Power of Inclusive Leadership Showcase at Performance Summit 2025
A showcase that shares stories of creating high performance environments with better outcomes for all will run alongside Performance Summit 2025 later this month.
The Power of Inclusive Leadership is a display presentation showcasing the value and power of inclusive leadership through the in-depth stories of women and NSOs in high performance sport, as told to LockerRoom’s Suzanne McFadden.
Hosted by HPSNZ’s Women in High Performance Sport team, The Power of Inclusive Leadership presentation stands will feature key themes that highlight multiple perspectives on how an inclusive leadership approach can impact high performance.
Diversity, equity and inclusion resources and workshops for the sector workforce
Whether you’re a coach, athlete, board member, leader, participant or volunteer, everyone should feel like they belong.
Stakeholders across the high performance sector have access to an updated resource hub developed by Sport NZ Group. The resource hub offers valuable tools to support an inclusive sector workforce, addressing area of improvement identified in the latest DEI Sector Workforce survey. It provides a range of resources to strengthen cultural capability, improve HR processes, address pay equity, and develop inclusive practices.
Sport NZ Group, in partnership with Diversitas, is also offering a series of free DEI online workshops from March to May. Join a session to learn how DEI principles lead to better outcomes, gain insights into how biases impact workplaces, and develop skills for inclusive leadership.
Explore the resource hub and register for an upcoming online workshop on SportTutor.
