The need to get results under the belt before arriving at a Winter Olympics is seen as one of the lessons for New Zealand athletes at the Vancouver Games.
Ben Sandford was New Zealand's top performer with his 11th placing in the men's skeleton, while there were other top-16 placings for women's skeleton racer Tionette Stoddard, women's halfpipe snowboarder Kendall Brown, who battled through the pain of a dislocated shoulder, and short-track speedskater Blake Skjellerup.
However, the selectors' target for the team of 16 had been two top-10 finishes and, in several events, New Zealand competitors finished at the tail of the field.
Chef de mission Pete Wardell said the team was a young one, with 12 making their Olympics debuts. For many, it was a big learning curve.
"They've realised that an Olympics is different from a World Cup event," he said today from Vancouver.
"They've looked at the medals and seen that the people who won them were consistently in the top five or the top 10 coming here. In winter sports, you hardly ever get a bolter."
Therefore, if athletes wanted to finish near the top at an Olympics, they needed to have been there beforehand.
Wardell said athletes, coaches and those running high performance programmes would go back and have an in-depth look at what had to be done ahead of the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.
"The ante will be wound up significantly for athletes looking to go to Sochi," he said.
"Those who want to make their mark will have to have made their mark before they get there."
While New Zealand success in the Winter Olympics is a rarity - skier Annelise Coberger's slalom silver at Albertville in 1992 remains the country's only medal in 14 campaigns - the overall performance in Canada has still attracted plenty of flak.
New Zealand's most successful Olympian, kayaker Ian Ferguson, said some of the results devalued the country's Olympic legacy.
There have also been questions about whether the support that government funding agency Sparc gave the campaign was money well spent.
Wardell believed the athletes had taken Ferguson's criticism in their stride.
"We're certainly not standing here telling them that they've been outstanding," he said.
"Basically, everybody performed to how they were when they came here.
"What we're telling them is that they know what it's like, they've seen the reality. To get to the top there's a heap of work that they, their coaches and everybody will need to do."
Wardell said the qualifying standards were higher than for Turin four years ago, and he expected the New Zealand Olympic Committee to raise them again ahead of Sochi.
As for Sparc funding, he said the agency knew that development was a long, slow process and the winter sports performance programme had been operating for only three years.
Meanwhile, apart from weather issues, which were part and parcel of winter sports, the Vancouver Games were "absolutely stunning".
"The Canadians have done a fabulous job in terms of being hosts and it's a great place to a Kiwi," Wardell said.
"Everybody in the team has been a great ambassador and the people here love seeing the Kiwi uniform."
He pointed to the ovation cross-country skier Ben Koons got in the 50km race today as he crossed the finish line in 46th place out of field of 53 starters.
"Sure, he was way outside the medals, but they were cheering him on for just being there."
