Olympic legend Ferguson blasts Winter Kiwis

BY NEIL REID AND AARON LAWTON

Our greatest Olympian has lashed out at New Zealand's under-performing Winter Games team, saying their efforts are devaluing New Zealand's proud Olympic legacy.

Ian Ferguson's cold blast comes as Sunday News can reveal the government's sports funding body Sparc has shelled out close to $1 million in support over the past year for the country's "high performance" programme for winter athletes.

Ferguson, New Zealand's most successful Olympian with four gold medals and a silver from five Summer Olympic appearances, is unimpressed with the 16-member Kiwi Winter Olympic team's mediocre showing so far in Vancouver, Canada.

The failure to even have a top 10 finish from any Kiwi at the halfway mark of the Games has left the kayak king known as "Ferg" fuming.

"When you are way down the line it's hard to justify being there," Ferguson told Sunday News.

"I can see how when the sport is just growing, you help them build up the sport so it becomes stronger next year. [But] when do you stop giving someone a freebie and call it quits? You just can't do that forever.

"I don't think you should be going to the Olympics if you don't really intend to be the best in the world.

"If you are too far down the line, it devalues you being able to call yourself an Olympian – if you get there without trying too hard.

"In a way it is self-regulating – you are an Olympian so you must be pretty bloody good rather than, `that was an easy option'."

Ferguson said the Kiwi team performance in Canada was highlighting the double standards in the way elite athletes are assessed and selected for summer and winter Olympics.

The legendary paddler has coached the New Zealand kayak team at the past two Summer Olympics but both times he has been minus competitors rated in the world's top 20 due to the New Zealand Olympic Committee's (NZOC) strict qualifying standards.

"In our sport if you are an Olympian you must be pretty good, you are virtually in the semifinals with a good chance of making the final," Ferguson said.

"Only the best of the best get to the Olympics."

Ferguson won three gold medals at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, before winning a further gold and a silver in Seoul four years later.

"It is not a game – it is not a free gift for you to become an Olympian. You have to deserve it."

But Mike Stanley, president of the NZOC, defended his organisation's more relaxed selection criteria for our Winter Olympians.

"The Summer Olympic benchmark is higher and that's deliberate," he said. "Those sports are generally at a more advanced level.

"But for the winter sports we wanted to set benchmarks that were higher than Torino [2006 Winter Olympics] – and they have been, quite considerably – with the expectation that they will go up again for the next Games.

"We looked at each sport's results at Torino and decided we wanted something that's a step ahead of what they set there. For some of those sports, that was at a lower level than others.

"We make no excuses about that because we are trying to get the sports to take responsibility for improving their performances."

Stanley said New Zealand's performance after the first week in Vancouver was "about in line with expectations" and said that selection criteria at the next Winter Olympics would become more stringent.

"At the end of the Games, we will look at these results," he said. "Selection is not a perfect process.

"Once everything's been reviewed, we will set some new targets for the next Games."

Stanley confirmed the Canadian campaign was "a pretty expensive exercise" but said it was also a "justifiable" expense.

"There is, I think, an obligation for us to be part of the Olympic family and have representation at the Games – that's all part of the Olympic movement," he said.

"We feel it's a justified commitment."

Meanwhile, Martin Toomey, the boss of Sparc's high performance unit, last night said Sparc was targeting two top 10 finishes in the Winter Olympics to justify its investment.

The lion's share of funding – $800,000 a year – goes towards the Winter Performance Programme, which is run through the NZ Academy of Sport South Island and helps co-ordinate and provide coaching, sports science, medical and performance support to elite winter athletes. Nine of New Zealand's Winter Olympians are supported by the programme.

Toomey said Sparc would reassess its funding upon his return from Vancouver.

- © Fairfax NZ News