Judo’s Sydnee Andrews’ campaign to Glasgow 2026
For a small, volunteer-driven sport like judo, HPSNZ’s investment has been particularly important. As a TAPS athlete at the potential level, Sydnee has been able to base herself in the UK and train fulltime under Olympic silver medal winning coach Luke Preston.
This stability and access to world class training has seen her world ranking surge from the 50s into the top 20, placing her first among Commonwealth judoka in the +78kg division.
But it is the holistic nature of HPSNZ’s support that is making the most profound difference.
HPSNZ Performance Team Leader Annika Wing has brought the campaign together, aligning Sydnee’s offshore coaching with domestic support to ensure cohesion, clarity and continuity.
Performance Life Coach Carolyn Donaldson has played a central role in helping Sydnee take ownership of her career, managing the complexities of living offshore, planning her campaign, and developing the confidence to lead her own high performance environment.
Carolyn says that after her Paris 2024 campaign, Sydnee wanted to take more leadership of her campaign.
“Supporting Sydnee with a range of activities from case management through to communications, budgets, establishing and tracking her Individual Performance Plan and increasing her understanding of her Picture of Performance has been our major priority as she plans her LA2028 campaign with Glasgow a big part of that journey,” says Carolyn.
In her role as part of Sydnee’s wider support team and as her Performance Life coach, Carolyn catches up with her every two or three weeks, depending where in the world she is.
Sydnee’s wider support team includes medical oversight and nutrition from New Zealand along with specialist psychology support in the UK, facilitated by HPSNZ Head of Psychology, John Sullivan.
Judo NZ National Technical Director Zane Lightfoot says the impact has been significant. “In the last year, Sydnee’s world ranking improvement means she’s tracking exactly where she needs to be,” he says. “HPSNZ’s support has allowed her to grow not only as an athlete but as a young woman learning to run her own campaign.”
Zane says judo remains a minority sport and the influence of HPSNZ is not as widely felt across the whole sport.
“However the continued HPSNZ financial support and involvement for Sydnee has been instrumental in her going from strength to strength.”
As Sydnee builds toward Glasgow, and ultimately LA2028, the message is clear: her rise is powered not only by talent and determination, but by a high performance system designed to help her succeed on the world stage.