Press Releases
Government Funds New Grants for Elite Athletes
31 May 2004
The government is backing New Zealand’s elite athletes with a new multi-million dollar grants system, Sport and Recreation Minister Trevor Mallard announced today.
The government is backing New Zealand’s elite athletes with a new multi-million dollar grants system, Sport and Recreation Minister Trevor Mallard announced today.
Worth $11.75 million over four years, 'Performance Enhancement Grants' will help elite athletes to defray living costs while concentrating on excelling in sport.
"There is a strong link between direct financial support for elite athletes and medal winning performances in world class events. The government wants to give our athletes the best chance possible to make us proud on the world stage.
These new performance enhancement grants are part of this strategy, and build on our significant investment in sport and recreation," Trevor Mallard said.
"Decisions about the size of the grants and how many athletes will benefit will be made later in the year. To give an indication, if we decided to give grants to around 600 elite athletes as a result of this funding the grants would range from about $5,000 to $25,000 per year. It may be, however, that we aim for bigger grants than this, for fewer athletes."
The scheme starts in September and will roll out over four years. It will initially focus on internationally ranked athletes and expand over subsequent years.
The New Zealand Academy of Sport will finalise the details of the eligibility criteria and rollout with national sports organisations over the coming months. Eligibility for grants will be subject to regular reviews based on continuing performance, including performance at key international events.
Currently, SPARC (Sport and Recreation New Zealand) invests more than $20 million a year in high-performance sport. This includes investment in the highperformance programmes of national sport organisations, and personal grants for carded athletes and coaches. There is also access to essential sports science, sports medicine and career advisory services for approximately 1000 carded athletes.
In addition, the Prime Minister’s Scholarship scheme, which gives elite athletes free access to tertiary education, is worth $5 million per year.
The new performance enhancement grants scheme will be administered by the New Zealand Academy of Sport, SPARC’s high performance network.
Contact: Astrid Smeele (press secretary) 04 4719080 or 0274 664438.
Email:astrid.smeele@parliament.govt.nz.
Updated | 30 Mar 2006.
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