Targets Set With Release Of High Performance Sport NZ

27 September, 2012
Media Release

Targets Set With Release Of High Performance Sport New Zealand Strategy

High Performance Sport New Zealand (HPSNZ) has today released its strategy through to 2020, which is designed to get even more New Zealanders winning on the world stage.

“New Zealand’s high performance sport system has been evolving for many years. Recent changes have included the Government’s significant boost in funding announced in 2010 and the formation of HPSNZ in 2011, along with greater targeting of resources,” says HPSNZ chief executive Alex Baumann.

“All the work in the years building up to London came to fruition when New Zealand won 13 medals at the Olympic Games and 17 at the Paralympic Games. These were outstanding results that the nation was rightly proud of,” he says.

“But we need to refine how we operate if we are to continue building on this success and this strategy represents the next step in the evolution of the high performance system.

“HPSNZ’s 2013-2020 Strategy describes our vision, sets new targets for the next two Olympic cycles, and outlines our long term aspiration for New Zealand to be recognised as having one of the world’s leading high performance systems,’’ Baumann says.

The strategy sets out investment and support priorities as:
• Sports and athletes that have medal potential at the Olympic Games (Summer and Winter)
• Non-Olympic targeted sports that can win at world championships
• Sports and athletes that have gold medal potential at the Paralympic Games (Summer and Winter)

“We are targeting 14 or more medals in Rio in 2016, and 16 or more medals in 2020. Those are our official targets for the next two Olympic Games.’’

Other targets set are:
• Winning at World Championships in targeted non-Olympic sports
• One or more medals at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and two or more in 2018
• 8-12 gold medals at the 2016 Paralympic Games
• Two or more gold medals at the 2014 Winter Paralympics
“Our partners in the sector will be key to the success of our Strategy. We’ll be working with them to achieve our targets over the next four years and beyond.’’

Baumann says sports will present their high performance plans to HPSNZ for consideration in November and the next investment decisions will be announced in December.

ENDS

© Scoop Media