High Performance Sports New Zealand has put its wallet where the metal is, granting the biggest funding increases to the Kiwi sports that had the best showings in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
Athletics funding increased by $375,000 as a result of four medals being awarded for those events. Sailing also brought four medals back to New Zealand, but those athletes will only see an extra $250,000 and possibly a few cans of spinach. A nice increase went to canoe paddlers who took two medals, yet saw their budget jump nearly as much as athletics, by $325,000.
Kiwi swimmers and cyclists, on the other hand, will have to do some belt-tightening, as those two codes combined will see funding decrease by nearly a million dollars.
The money from High Performance New Zealand will be in additions to any grants awarded on a case-by-case basis to individual athletes. Sailors and paddlers, for example, have a high degree of reliance on technology and equipment, so HPNZ money could be directed toward equipment in addition to training.
The goal is to make a strong showing at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
Winter Olympics athletes were not neglected, with the next winter games just two short years away.