New Zealand cyclists Ally Wollaston, Bryony Botha, Emily Shearman and Nicole Shields compete during the Women’s Team Pursuit at Paris Olympics. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
High Performance Sport New Zealand (HPSNZ) has cut the number of sports it will financially support for the next four years.
Through to the Los Angeles Olympic and Paralympic Games HPSNZ will invest $162.8 million into 36 National Sporting Organisations.
Just over $40m will go directly to the chosen sports’ high performance programmes and performance pathways each year of the cycle.
Rowing remains the sport with the most funding with $6m each year.
Cycling’s five track medals at the Paris Olympics helped the sport get the biggest increase in funding from the previous cycle.
Cycling will now get $5.25m a year an increase of $770 thousand annually.
Hockey has seen its funding cut drastically, losing almost $1.5m a year slashed from $2.9m annually to $1.5m after the women’s team failed to qualify for the Olympics and the men’s team finished last at the Games failing to win a match.
Yachting, athletics, canoe racing, canoe slalom, para waka ama, speed climbing, tennis, para table tennis, and gymnastics are among the sports which will receive increased funding.
Six sports have lost funding completely and 16 more have had funding decreases.
The Football Ferns, who had a tumultuous year off the field and poor results on it, will receive no HPSNZ investment in this cycle. They had previously received $200,000 a year.
Diving, surfing, golf, badminton and E-Sports also miss out on any funding.
Fehi Fineanganofo in action for the All Blacks Sevens at the Paris Olympics. Photo: Iain McGregor / www.photosport.nz
The All Blacks Sevens, who missed the podium at the Paris Olympics this year, are among the teams with decreased funding with a drop from $1m a year to $750,000.
Despite Hayden Wilde getting a silver medal in Paris, triathlon loses nearly $200,000 of funding, with $850,000 coming to the sport each year of the next Olympic cycle.
Equestrian, swimming and basketball are other sports that have decreased funding.
Black Sticks women missed Olympics and lose funding. Photo: David Rowland
A number of sports will see their investment remain consistent with the Paris cycle, including rugby’s gold medal winning Black Ferns Sevens and the world champion White Ferns.
In addition to the funding going directly to National Sporting Organisations (NSO) HPSNZ will invest $22m per annum in Tailored Athlete Pathway Support (TAPS) to support the wellbeing and performance of eligible athletes in the high performance system.
This TAPS investment is made up of $11.9m per year which goes to athletes for financial support, and includes training and excellence grants, and health insurance. From 2025 eligible athletes will receive $50,000 per annum as an Elite Training Grant, an increase of $17,500, while the Potential Training Grant will increase by $14,000 to $25,000 per annum.
The remaining $10.1m will be available for performance support which allows athletes to access health and wellbeing focused performance medicine, nutrition, physiotherapy, performance science and performance life.
An additional $800,000 per annum is available in a standalone fund for wellbeing initiatives.
HPSNZ director of high performance Steve Tew said the latest round of funding highlighted the importance of balancing wellbeing and performance when making investment decisions.
“We believe wellbeing and performance are interwoven and we need to ensure the environments of the sporting organisations we are investing into are appropriately balanced.
“High performance sport is challenging, and athletes take themselves out of their comfort zones on a regular basis – but it is vital that they are physically, emotionally and psychologically safe while they do it.”
During the previous funding cycle, HPSNZ invested a total of $131m over three years. Between 2022 and 2024, 44 sports were funded and $7.4m was set aside for wellbeing initiatives.
The divvying up of HPSNZ funding was under investigation after the government ordered an independent review of Sport NZ and how it allocated public funds, with one insider saying there was an impression the organisation’s strategy had become “a cash free-for-all”.
HPSNZ director of high performance Steve Tew. Photo: Andrew Cornaga / www.photosport.nz
“This investment package is designed to maintain the targeted approach that has helped deliver ongoing international success for New Zealand athletes, while continuing to increase wellbeing support within the high performance system,” Tew said.
“We understand that some sports will be disappointed with these decisions, and they were difficult decisions because we had quality presentations from all of the NSOs.
“It is not a reflection of their work and commitment to their sport. Ultimately, we have a finite amount of money to work with, and we have prioritised those sports with the track record and the highest potential to achieve the desired outcomes at pinnacle events.
“This was a robust process with a focus on winning medals at the LA 2028 Olympics and Paralympics and other pinnacle events during the cycle.”
Photo: AFP
HPSNZ had targeted between 14 and 18 medals won by New Zealand athletes at the next Olympics; between nine and 14 medals at the next Paralympics and more than 10 World Championships medals across non-Olympic and Paralympic sports.
Snow Sports NZ and Ice Speed Skating NZ are currently funded through until 30 June 2026, after next Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Milano-Cortina.
The Netball NZ investment of $2.2m aligned to their world championship cycle and concluded on 31 December 2027.
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