Nick, a pre high performance athlete, joined a panel at a Performance Summit 2025 session Athletes Leading Change, facilitated by Athlete Leaders Network (ALN) Chair, Sarah Cowley Ross.
The panel featured athletes and former athletes at either end of the experience spectrum including Olympic sailing double medallist, Jo Aleh, touch rugby’s Reihana Soutar-Finch and former athlete and ALN board member, Angela Walker-Subramaniam.
At just 21 years old, Nick’s athlete voice journey is the continuation of his involvement as a youth advocate and voice since his school days at Alexandra’s Dunstan High School.
A founding member of the Canoe Slalom NZ Athlete Leadership Group (ALG) and ALN, Nick’s involvement in community and sports advocacy began while he was still at high school.
His initial community involvement was as a youth leader for ’Sticks and Stones’, a youth led and directed group for bullying prevention, and then, as a Central Otago Junior Youth councillor on Dunstan’s School Council.
Nick’s first taste of advocacy in a sports environment was as a youth advisor for the Central Otago White Water Club.
“This was my first opportunity to shine a spotlight on youth athletes entering the scene from a place of active understanding.”
Fast forward to 2021 and Nick had the opportunity to be a founding member of Canoe Slalom NZ’s ALG. “It was at the beginning of the Paris cycle and it was a no-brainer for me to take up this opportunity even though at first I was unsure how I would fit in and what the relevance of my voice was alongside Olympic athletes like Luuka Jones,” says Nick.
The 2024 Olympic Games provided Nick with his next opportunity when, due to their Paris commitments, Luuka and Finn Butcher were unable to attend the inaugural ALN forum.
“Luuka shoulder tapped me to take up the opportunity with ALN on behalf of Canoe Slalom. Initially I was a back up to Luuka and Finn and I certainly had a big dose of imposter syndrome. I had all those probably predictable thoughts – did I deserve the opportunity, is my voice important, is the voice of a pre HP athlete important, and so on.”
With a maturity beyond his years, Nick says the initial ALN forum showed the importance of bringing athletes from all sports together in one room. “For me, it was a compelling demonstration of the power of a collective approach to strengthen the entire sports sector and to learn from each other.”
Nick believes he is able to bring a number of fresh perspectives to the ALN table. “I represent athletes from a small, niche but rapidly growing sport that has increasing public interest.
“In addition, because I am in the pre HP space, I bring a different perspective. I’m friends with lots of young athletes and feel I have the opportunity to share their voices on the performance pathway to high performance journey.”
Nick has big goals on and off the canoe slalom course. But right now his athlete voice goal is to inspire other young athletes to be open and comfortable to share their ideas and perspectives.
In the future and as long as he is around sport, Nick wants to continue to be involved with athlete voice initiatives whether through a local sports club, at a national or international level.
“I encourage young athletes in sports big and small to get involved. Not every sport currently has an athlete voice mechanism and that provides a great opportunity to help your sport create its own athlete voice.”
