Winter Olympic Programme
The Winter Olympic programme is one of ASI's most recent ventures. It became a reality late in 2004 at the instigation of the ASI and is run by them, with the backing of SPARC and the NZOCGA, with considerable support from the Lion Foundation.
It is a concerted effort to enhance New Zealand's performance and profile in the Winter Olympic codes. WOPP is based at Wanaka, under the directorship of Mark Elliott, the former Triathlon New Zealand High Performance Director. Triathlon's achievements during 2004 were overseen by him; an Olympic Gold for Hamish Carter and the 2004 world title and Olympic silver to Bevan Docherty. Mark Elliott is also Docherty's personal coach.
'We're really looking a new phase in New Zealand sport with this programme. I liken it to where triathlon was, maybe eight years ago. Probably there were not too many people who had heard of Hamish Carter and Bevan Docherty way back then.' MARK ELLIOT
This new winter sport programme will utilise Elliott's experience and expertise and Southern New Zealand's natural environment and world class winter sports facilities. Many of these are in the Wanaka Queenstown area, a region that annually draws the world's leading alpine teams and athletes for out-of-season training.
Winter sports athletes have not, in the main, been supported by the NZ Academy of Sport, the ASI's parent body. That's no longer the case with WOPP's establishment, which should lead to success on the international stage. The primary aim is to provide competitors, coaches and their respective national sport organisations with technical assistance and advice to develop high performance programmes leading to Winter Olympic qualification. This has already happened for the New Zealand curling team - finishing in the top eight at the 2005 world championships - and snow boarder Juliane Bray.
This ASI initiative could easily realise the dream of New Zealand Winter sports people winning on the international stage. Already 56 athletes from nine different Winter Olympic disciplines have been identified for the programme. Of these 26 are thought to have a good chance of qualifying for the next winter games in Turin, Italy. Some of the remaining 30 could also qualify but in the main they are being groomed for the 2010 games in Vancouver.