All too often New Zealand commentators make the case that with more money New Zealand could improve its Olympic results. For 25 years I have disputed that argument. High Performance Sport New Zealand (HPSNZ) spends more than $60million every year on handouts to dozens of sports. There is plenty of money. What it is spent on is the problem.

So, how much did each medal at Tokyo cost the country. Well, it depends on how you work the numbers. There are three options.

Option One

Eleven sports won 20 medals in Tokyo. (7 Gold, 6 Silver and 7 Bronze) HPSNZ paid the eleven sports approximately $24million each year in grants leading up to the competition. On average each medal cost $1.2million. Significantly, the most expensive medals were cycling’s two silvers that cost $2.5million each. The cheapest was the one bronze medal in boxing.  

Option Two

In addition to the 11 sports that won medals there were 10 other sports who went to the Games, received HPSNZ funding, but didn’t win any medals. Swimming for example held its hand out for $800k and came home with nothing. If the grants given to these 10 sports are added to the cost per medal calculation, then the average cost per medal jumps to $2.0million.

Option Three

In addition to the 21 sports that went to the Games, there are many others who did not attend but did receive HPSNZ money. If the grants given to all sports are added to the cost per medal calculation, then the average cost per medal jumps to $3.0million.

Conclusion

And so, what we can say is that each Tokyo Olympic medal cost New Zealand between $1.2million and $2.0million. No one can tell me that is not enough money. Especially when New Zealand is spending more per medal than Australia and the United States.  

It is a huge sum, so big in fact it begs the question – what on earth is it being spent on?

As sure as God made little green apples it didn’t go to those who won the medals. The share paid to the workers by New Zealand sport would never be accepted on a Fletcher’s building site or AFFCO meat factory. For example, HPSNZ paid Canoeing New Zealand $820k for each of Lisa Carrington’s Gold medals. Lisa Carrington and K2 companion, Caitlin Regal, received $60k each. But their pay came from a separate HPSNZ pot. So that does not explain the pile of money ($2.5million) that went somewhere else.

And in that mystery lies a huge dark problem for sport in New Zealand. A mystery that in my opinion has caused the loss to New Zealand of tennis player Norrie, that caused Boyle to leave New Zealand to train in Australia and was at the heart of the death of cyclist, Podmore.

Bureaucrats in dozens of Millennium offices had too much money, too many staff and too much power. Their bloated HPSNZ funded lifestyles depended on the toil of Carrington, Norrie, Boyle and Podmore. The pressure to perform was not so Boyle or Carrington could win or even be paid. The pressure to perform was to secure Swimming New Zealand and Canoeing New Zealand their next HPSNZ grant – to keep their sporting masters in the inflated lifestyles that are now normal in New Zealand sport.

When the pressure to keep their sports afloat got too much Norrie went to the UK, Boyle went to Australia and Podmore could not see any way out. And all that is not a problem of not enough money. We have shown there is plenty of money. The problem is the owners of the swimming, cycling and tennis coal mines squeezing young New Zealanders for more and more and more. HPSNZ can pay for all the psychological therapy available. But when the pressure to perform so that your masters can be paid is perceived to be true, it is true in its consequences. Consequences that are always damaging and occasionally fatal.