Phoebe Williams is travelling to Australia. Shane Patience is staying at home.
Under the "user-pays" system in operation, swimmers have to count the dollars before signing up to represent their country.
It will cost Williams (16), a pupil at St Hildas Collegiate, $1500 to travel to Australia for the transtasman series against two Australian teams in a six-event series.
She is the only Otago member of the 21-strong New Zealand team.
Swimming New Zealand is also operating a performance fee in the transtasman series to financially assist swimmers who get good results. Patience (18), a student at the Sports Institute of Otago, has qualified to represent New Zealand at the World University Games in Belgrade, Serbia.
But he has turned down the trip because the $6000 cost is too high and his parents cannot afford to back him.
He qualified when he beat the required 800 Fina points with his 400m freestyle time of 3min 57.95sec and the 1500m time of 15min 38.05sec.
Patience also represented New Zealand at the Oceania championships where he gained two top-eight placings with personal best times.
It cost Patience $5000 to travel to Guam in January for the Junior Pan Pac meet.
The Waves club backs its swimmers by paying 20% of the cost of internal and international trips to major swimming events.
Swimming Otago has also begun a system to support swimmers who are selected in New Zealand teams where the "user-pays"system operates.
But the fund has just started and the amount of subsidy is small at the moment.
If Patience had travelled to the World University Games it would have been the sixth time that the Waves club had backed a New Zealand representative since November.
Stefanie Gillespie (13) and Phoebe O'Leary (14) competed in the Pacific Schools Games in Canberra in December and Williams and Patience competed in the Pan Pacs in Guam.
Williams will be the fifth swimmer subsidised when she travels to Australia in July.
The Waves club also backs the travel of the four members of the New Zealand Youth Development squad and the five members in the Age Group Development squad.
Coach Andy Adair said that the club got "fantastic support" from the Skeggs Foundation and other local trusts.
But the Skeggs Foundation is the only trust that will give grants for overseas travel.
The Waves club would have given Patience $1200 to travel to Serbia and he would have received about $200 from the fledgling Swim Otago fund.
"But it would still leave his parents close to $4500 out of pocket," Adair said.
"Shane's parents had to fork out $5000 for the Pan Pacs last January."
The plight of Patience highlights the problems faced by budding Otago sports stars as they strive to compete internationally.
Trips to the senior Pan Pacs, Commonwealth and Olympic Games and world championships are fully funded.
"The problem is for swimmers who are just below that threshold," Adair explained.
"They need funding to help them bridge the gap."
Williams won her first national title at the New Zealand age group championships at Hamilton in March 2007 and broke her first national record when she won the girls under-15 800m freestyle at the New Zealand Spring Championships in 8min 52.42sec at Wellington in September that year.
Williams is the daughter of former New Zealand champion and international swimmer Kay Alexander. Williams qualified for Guam when she won the open women's 800m freestyle at the Spring championships in a personal best 8min 47.28sec.
It was worth 835 Fina points and was her first New Zealand open women's title.
The cost
Of national selection
- $1500 Phoebe Williams to Australia: Going
- $6000 Shane Patience to Serbia: Not going
(Waves club subsidy: 20%)
