Athlete Services
ASI's primary role is to provide a range of services that will enhance athletic achievement and put our athletes on the world stage.
The range of applied medical services we provide includes injury management, recovery and prevention. The sports science programmes incorporate bio-mechanics, psychology, nutrition and strength and conditioning.
We also ensure that athletes have access to training facilities - track, pool and gym - and diverse technology: heat chamber, cooling vests, heart rate monitors, video analysis, GPS units, and altitude tents.
Many ASI assisted athletes have achieved ultimate success, including members of the world champion Silver Ferns (netball) and Black Sox (softball) and the Wheel Blacks' gold medal at the Athens Paralympics. Notable individual performances include Greg Henderson's world cycling titles, Scarlett Hagen's world junior downhill cycling title, Snow boarder Julianne Bray's World Cup successes and Matthew Slade's 400 metres second place at the paralympics World Championships. Many others have achieved personal bests and placings at international and national level.
The Athlete Career and Education Programme (ACE) programme is an ongoing service to all our carded athletes. Our five ACE advisors work regularly with athletes to help them develop life skills and maximise and prolong their high performance sporting life.
ASI also administers Prime Minister’s Scholarships, designed to assist athletes to achieve excellence in both sport and education. These are available to selected high performance athletes and those identified with potential, that are pursuing some form of tertiary education. There are 190 scholarship recipients studying in the South Island in 2006.
Athlete Highlights
A significant number of ASI assisted athletes were placed world championships, Olympics and Paralympics in the past year. Jo Edwards, Val Smith, Paul Girdler, Garry Lawson (bowls). Greg Henderson (cycling), Paul Jesson, Matt Slade, Bill Oughton, Dan Buckingham, Jeremy Tinker, Tim Johnston, Steve Guthrie, Jeremy Morris (Paralympics) Georgina Toomey, Jane Arnott, Morgan Foster (surf life saving)
Placings at the junior world championship level included: Sarah Bryant (triathlon) Kendall Brown (snow boarding) Scarlett Hagen (downhill cycling) Nathan Cohen (rowing) Julia McLean (skiing)
Over 7,700 applied services were delivered in medicine, sports science and ACE programmes to athletes in NZAS and ASI programmes.
Athlete satisfaction with ASI services and support was rated at over 80 per cent, which is above the national average.