KEY POINTS:
Cast in post-Athens doldrums, sailing bosses were in a funk. "It was a bloody disaster," Yachting New Zealand's Des Brennan says of the medal-less 2004 Olympic performance.
For a country surrounded by water, with a fine Olympic tradition and whose sailors swell the ranks of the America's Cup,
far more was expected.
One understandable reaction could have been for Olympic sailors to be cut loose from funding programmes: how could failure earn ongoing support?
A more measured approach won the day. Sport and Recreation New Zealand has pumped more than $4 million into sailing's four-year high-performance programme leading up to Beijing and YNZ has overhauled its approach.
Sparc high-performance manager Martin Toomey cites sailing as an example of the agency's long-term approach to the Olympics. "There was a determination to get things right over the next four years," he says.
Gold and silver medal-winning sailor Rod Davis was appointed Olympic director, working with silver medallist Leslie Egnot, with an unabashed ambition of producing champions.
"They've set really tight and exacting standards. Everyone has had to raise the bar and because of that you're seeing the results."
On the eve of the Olympics, seven crews rank among the top-eight in the world, including four 2007 or 2008 world championship medal winners.
Brennan says Davis and Egnot's leadership, backed by coaches and advisers, has been vital, along with a clear message to sailors about what is expected.
"We created an entirely new selection policy, taking it down from something like 40-50 pages to about four. We established an Olympic squad with clear entry requirements - about top-10 in the world - and requalification every year.
"We've applied the most resources to those showing most promise of medals."
While pleased with the performances so far, Brennan knows nothing is certain. "We know China is very fickle and a lot of things can go wrong." But the more sailors in contention, the better the chances of a decent haul.
Sailing's improvement is matched across other Olympic sports. Between 2003 and 2007, the number of top-eight New Zealand athletes has risen from 17 to 27. The signs that New Zealand can boost its five medal haul from Athens are promising.
Toomey says the lift in performances can in part be put down to increased investment in high performance sport - a rise from $20 million a year to $33 million.
"But it's not just money," says Toomey. "It's improvements in systems, development of the academies and the sports themselves improving what they do."
Direct funding of top athletes since 2001 has been a major breakthrough too. "Before, athletes had access to a coach, but if they had to be working eight hours a day, it was a matter of fitting in training when it suited. Now with an employed coach and athlete, they can train at the best times."
Olympic selectors too have raised the standards. Barry Maister, secretary-general of the NZOC, says to make the Olympic squad, an individual athlete will have to be in top-16 contention and a team will have to be able to make it past the first round.
"It's not a hard-and-fast rule - for some small sports which are truly international it's a very, very high standard," says Maister.
"But this time the board has decided it wants to take a harder line.
"We have a role to play in improving New Zealand sport."
