Their victories will guarantee kayaking and cycling receive strong financial support, with canoeing, rowing and rugby also likely to benefit from gold medal wins.
Newstalk ZB sports reporter and Olympic commentator Elliott Smith told The Front Page that funding from High Performance Sports New Zealand (HPSNZ) is largely contingent on what sports we succeed in.
“Funding brings results and brings medals, and therefore it gets more funding the next time around when they go cap in hand to get the allocation of their funding.
“Cycling has been very good in delivering medals for New Zealand, so too rowing and kayaking, therefore they get more money to continue on that trajectory, and sports that maybe New Zealand has had a success in previously, like hockey, when the success runs out, the tap runs out as well.”
In 2021, HPSNZ announced $131 million in direct funding to athletes for the 2021-24 cycle. As part of the 2025-28 cycle, Elite Training Grants will go up to $50,000 per annum, for athletes competing in sports eligible for the next Summer and Winter Olympic Games.
At least 35 sports are expected to be in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, and 16 at the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics in 2026.
With a lot of potential sports to fund and a limited pool of money, Smith said it makes sense for New Zealand to focus on sports it is good at - even if that means limited funding by comparison for sports that are bigger globally - such as swimming or basketball - or newer sports like speed climbing, where medals aren’t as likely.
Smith said that even if other sports, like swimming, were given more funding, it doesn’t necessarily mean New Zealand would be able to produce athletes capable of taking on the world’s best.
“Sometimes you get that just absolute freak of nature who is capable of doing things in the pool or on the track or in the field that are deserving of money, but just because you throw money at [someone], you may not necessarily find those things.
“I think there is some success New Zealand could have with swimming, which has had a fair bit of money thrown at it, and we’ve got Erica Fairweather and Lewis Clarebert who are the two shining stars at the moment, but I’m not sure, compared to the Australias of the world and the Americas that tip so much money into those programmes, that New Zealand will ever be able to compete financially.”
Listen to the full episode for a full recap of the Olympics, from the winning Kiwis and the international highlights, to the athletes and sports that will be looking for improvement in 2028.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
