Olympics: Games preparation sound - Sparc boss

He declined to give a number but Sparc chief executive Peter Miskimmin believes several New Zealand athletes have the potential to win medals at the Beijing Olympics.

"We are encouraged and optimistic about how well we'll go in Beijing," Miskimmin told the Otago Daily Times.

"But we are not making any medal predictions because it is a difficult art and science.

"We do know that our athletes going to Beijing are performing better than they were going into Athens."

Before the Athens Olympics, New Zealand had 19 top-eight placings and three athletes who were in the top three in the world.

This year, there are 11 team members in the top three in the world and 29 in the top eight.

"On performances leading into the Games, we think we are going to do better than we did in Athens," Miskimmin said.

But he cautioned against great expectations for a big medal haul.

"The Olympic environment doesn't respect reputations or form," he said.

"It is for those athletes who have the temperament and can perform on the day."

New Zealand won three gold and two silver medals at Athens.

Miskimmin expects the time and detailed planning put into preparing New Zealand athletes for the Olympics will pay dividends at Beijing.

"I don't think there will be too many surprises by athletes outside the top eight," Miskimmin said.

"History tells us that 12 months out from an Olympic Games you have to be in the top eight to [later] get on the podium.

"Our view is that somewhere in this group is where we are going to get the medals."

There is also a young group of athletes that Sparc (Sport and Recreation New Zealand) is grooming for the 2012 Olympics and beyond.

About $33 million is put into high-performance sport each year by Sparc.

"It goes directly into national sporting organisations to run their high-performance plans for travel and training camps," Miskimmin said.

It includes money that goes directly to athletes such as performance enhancement grants, Prime Minister's scholarships, and money put into the North and South Island academies to provide sports science and sports medicine services to athletes.

Funds are also put into technology and innovation.

Because of the small size of New Zealand, Sparc has targeted certain sports to produce the best international results.

"We have chosen nine targeted sports that get 70% of the funding," Miskimmin said.

"Six of those sports are going to Beijing and will get the bulk of the money."

Although more money has been allocated for the Beijing Olympics than in the past it still pales into insignificance compared with the amounts given by other countries.

Miskimmin said said Sparc valued the work done by the South Island Academy of Sport, based in Dunedin.

"We want out athletes to have the best chance of doing well at Beijing."

Sparc has a $100 million budget and only 12% of that is used for internal costs.

The remainder goes out to the sports sector either directly or through a number of different programmes.

"We contract national sports organisations, regional sports trusts like Sport Otago, to deliver our programmes."

Miskimmin said Sparc had no part in the selection of marathon runner Liza Hunter-Galvan who gained selection after winning a court case.

"We don't select the team. Athletics New Zealand put the nominations forward and the New Zealand Olympic Committee selects the team.

"We are out of the selection process completely."

 

NZ podium finishes

World champs, past 12 months

Valerie Vili (athletics).

Sarah Walker (cycling).

Mahe Drysdale (rowing)Women's double sculls (rowing).

Men's coxless four (rowing)Men's pair (rowing).

Tom Ashley (sailing)Barbara Kendall (sailing).

Dan Slater (sailing).

Bevan Docherty (triathlon).

Sam Warriner (triathlon).