From the Chief Executive
Kia ora tātou,
Greetings from Paris.
By the time you read this, the Opening Ceremony for the Paris Olympic Games will be less than two days away. In fact, the All Blacks Sevens and the OlyWhites will have already played their first matches in their respective Olympic tournaments.
The start of the Games this week is the culmination of an Olympic cycle like no other. Shortened due to the delayed Tokyo 2020 Games and jam packed with challenges, some sporting in nature and many due to the long tail of COVID-19 and its ongoing impacts on things like the economy, cost pressures and availability of international travel.
So, it’s worth taking a moment to reflect and acknowledge what all those in New Zealand’s high performance sport system have been through in the past three years and everything we have achieved together, to support the NSOs in getting the NZ Team athletes to Paris with the best possible chance of success.
From an HPSNZ point of view, we are proud to have approximately 40 of our specialist practitioners at the Games working with the NZOC and NSOs to ensure the athletes get the Games time support they need. We wish them all the best and know they are doing the hard yards throughout the Games.
With the Opening Ceremony in mind, this edition of HPSNZ Update features a number of our own former Olympians looking back on the Opening Ceremonies they attended.
Erika Fairweather will compete in the Olympic 400m freestyle this weekend and she talked to us about the work with her support team to get her to Paris.
Dr Helen Fulcher is attending her first Olympic Games as part of the NZOC medical team and she talks to us about what she will be focussing on to keep the NZ Team healthy.
And looking ahead to the Paralympic Games, congratulations to Paralympics NZ on their thought provoking new marketing campaign ‘We’ll Give You Something To Talk About’.
Regardless of the final medal count at these Olympics, we can be confident the NZ Team will do us proud. We wish the athletes and the team behind the team well and look forward to celebrating the successes.
Ngā mihi nui
Raelene
Olympic and Paralympic Perspectives: Alison Shanks
Alison Shanks, Beijing 2008
Two time Olympian, track and road cyclist Alison Shanks, shares her memories of Beijing 2008 and London 2012 in what she describes as two quite different experiences.
Now a Performance Pathways Strategic Consultant for HPSNZ, Alison is the ninth and final Olympian and Paralympian in our feature series heading towards the start of Paris 2024.
Opening Ceremony memories
Chris Arthur and Anna Simcic 1992
With the clock counting down the hours until what will be a unique Olympic Games Opening Ceremony, a number of HPSNZ’s Olympians share memories of their own Opening Ceremony experiences.
Whether marching behind the New Zealand flag or watching on TV with their teammates because of competition schedules or being in a satellite village, three words come up regularly with the five former Olympians to summarise the moment – pride, excitement and reality. Pride in being a Kiwi on the world stage representing Aotearoa New Zealand, excitement at being part of the biggest global celebration and reality, the ‘this is it’ moment where hopes and dreams become real.
HPSNZ’s Chris Arthur and Anna Simcic share their marching moments while Hannah McLean, Adrian Blincoe and Tina Manker reflect on the occasion they watched with teammates.
Making performance in the pool the best it can be
When one of New Zealand’s top swimming prospects takes to the pool in Paris this weekend she knows her performance will be as good as it can be, thanks to her own efforts and those of her coach and HPSNZ performance support team.
New Zealand’s first ever World Championship long course gold medalist, Dunedin’s Erika Fairweather, has had a stunning start to the year and is hopeful that, along with her planning and preparation, will lead to success in Paris.
An Olympian in Tokyo, Erika says the build up to Paris could not be more different and the work of her performance support team is a big factor in that difference.
Unique GP and specialist female medical care in Paris
Excitement was strong in the voice of Paris-bound HPSNZ Athlete Performance Support Lead, Dr Helen Fulcher, as she started packing her bag for her first Olympic Games.
As one of five doctors on the 13-strong Paris 2024 Core Health team, Helen has a unique role within the group using her 15 years’ experience as a GP and her subspecialist expertise as HPSNZ’s clinical women’s health lead.
The dual role will see her providing support to the whole Athlete Village-based Kiwi team and to the female athletes who make up almost half the athletes in the New Zealand team.
The lead up to the Games have, for Helen, focussed on the three Ps – planning, preparation and prevention. And she’s the first to say she’d be delighted if she had nothing to do in Paris because that means the athletes are fit, strong and most importantly healthy.
First graduate of Core Knowledge programme
Hastings-based track and field coach, Jonathan Black, is the first graduate of Wā Kāinga Core Knowledge, HPSNZ’s coaching partnership programme with NSOs which aims to lift the core knowledge of coaches and provide critical skills in the early part of the HP pathway.
Programme lead, Craig Palmer, says he is excited to see the first of the 382 coaches undertaking Core Knowledge complete all 12 workshops over a three year period.
“While Core Knowledge is a programme delivered in partnership with NSOs, what is impressive with Jonathan is the way he has driven his development with the endorsement of Athletics NZ. He has totally ‘owned’ his professional development,” says Craig.
“His commitment to his professional development has seen him travel from his home base in Hastings to participate in the workshops and it is evident the in-person learning with his fellow, cross sport colleagues is real gold.”
Jonathan, for his part, seems a little surprised when he heard he was the first ‘graduate’ of the inaugural full Core Knowledge programme, which began in 2022 following a pilot in 2021.
Athletes to receive significant funding increase
New Zealand’s high performance athletes will receive a significant increase in their training grants from 2025.
Eligible athletes will receive $50,000 per annum as an Elite Training Grant, an increase of $17,500, while the Potential Training Grant will increase by $14,000 to $25,000 per annum. This equates to approximately $2 million additional direct financial support for athletes.
The increases will come into effect for the 2025 – 2028 cycle for eligible athletes from individual sports who compete in events which are confirmed as part of the next Winter and Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games cycle.
The NZ Paralympic Team – Something to Talk About
Paralympics New Zealand has put together a provocative marketing campaign that delves inside the minds of New Zealand’s Paralympians, and aims to have Kiwis look at them through a different lens.
Paralympians Cameron Leslie, Anna Grimaldi and Devon Briggs are among the stars of a new campaign ahead of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, entitled ‘We’ll Give You Something To Talk About’.
The campaign features a series of visually striking and thought-provoking films directed by Lex Hodge. They show Para athletes in positions of power, even when external voices oppose them, using the negative comments as fuel to push further and faster. The campaign challenges people to look at the athlete first, rather than focus on their disability.
Check out the first film in the series featuring Paralympian Cameron Leslie here and the second featuring Paralympian Anna Grimaldi here.
Paris 2024 – follow us online
To celebrate the success of the NZ Team in Paris, follow HPSNZ online during the Olympic Games.
We’ll mark the big moments and go beyond the medals to bring you unique content on our Facebook, Instagram and TikTok channels.
Out TikTok channel @insidehpsportnz is already loaded up with video content of New Zealand’s Paris bound athletes in the lead up to the Games so take a look behind the scenes and get some unique insights from the athletes you will see competing in Paris.
Enjoy the content, share it with your social media network and help us grow our audience and engage more Kiwis in high performance sport.
