5:18 am today

Troubled waters for Yachting NZ

5:18 am today
New Zealand's Isaac Mchardie and New Zealand's William Mckenzie arrive to win Race 1 of the men’s 49er skiff event during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games sailing competition at the Roucas-Blanc Marina in Marseille on July 28, 2024. (Photo by Christophe SIMON / AFP)

Photo: AFP/CHRISTOPHE SIMON

Yachting New Zealand is the country's first body to be dragged before the new Sport Integrity Commission, in what is uncharted territory

New Zealand's yachties have a proud Olympic history, putting the sport fourth for medals in the summer games.

But beneath the podium it's not all smooth sailing.

The sport's administrative body, Yachting New Zealand, has the dubious honour of being the first to be investigated by the newly minted Sport Integrity Commission, which was launched just last year.

RNZ's sporting correspondent Dana Johannsen says nine confirmed complaints, but probably more, are being looked at.

On The Detail today she explains how issues bubbling beneath the surface for several years have come up in time to become a test case.

But the complaints raise questions over how we go about dealing with sporting disputes, including the quality of communication between selectors and athletes; and the near-impossibility of predicting future medallists to send to the Games as development prospects.

Yachting New Zealand had already commissioned its own internal evaluation post-Paris, done by former New Zealand Olympic Committee head Kereyn Smith. Her report revealed problems with cultural issues, a lack of transparency, perceived favouritism, a mutual lack of trust ... and also "a perception that leadership operates within a traditional paradigm which may not embrace modern, inclusive or innovative approaches".

"A nice way of saying...'old school'," Johannsen said.

"I think the insular nature of the sport, and some of the conflicts of interest that exist in the leadership, in the setup, is actually what's made issues get up to this point, in that they've blown up in the way they have because they haven't had the processes in place to address these things early. That's possibly because there is a bit of 'group think' happening."

Last year Yachting New Zealand faced criticism over athletes selected for Paris in spite of not qualifying - star 49ers crew Molly Meech and Jo Aleh, who failed to achieve a top 10 placing at one of the designated selection regattas - and it was rebuked by the Sports Tribunal over a decision not to select kite foiler Lukas Walton-Keim, who technically did qualify but wasn't nominated by Yachting NZ.

Johannsen said one issue is the lack of clarity over selection criteria.

"Yachting New Zealand is the only national body or Olympic sport that does not publish its selection criteria. So if you were to go on the New Zealand Olympic Committee website they have every selection criteria for every sport - except for yachting.

"I have asked the New Zealand Olympic Committee about this and it is because Yachting New Zealand believes that if the criteria were publicly released, then other countries could get their hands on that criteria and potentially try to interfere with selections."

While that argument has been put forward for a number of Olympic cycles now, Johannsen said there were a lot of people who don't agree with that premise.

But as far as the case before the Commission goes, "I don't think we can read into [it] being the first and therefore somehow the worst of the lot," she said.

"Certainly it's all to do with timing, and the Sports Integrity Commission was established on July 1 last year and that was right about the time that all this was kicking off in the yachting community."

Editor of Sail World, Richard Gladwell, said it was nowhere near as bad as it looks, and "Yachting New Zealand is always the whipping boy".

"It doesn't really matter what they do, they're always the one at fault," he said.

That's a perception forged out of his history as not only an Olympic triallist, but his work from 2004 to 2012 on the board of Yachting New Zealand.

He spoke to The Detail about the complex layers that must be factored in by selectors when picking Olympians, and how those decisions are hamstrung by the use of what money there is to back potential winners.

Gladwell said there are several layers going on when it comes to selections, including funding for programmes, requirements from the Olympic Committee and working out who to pick from the borderline of selection. Decisions on funding campaigns have to be made several years out from an Olympics, and sometimes before the IOC itself signals that a particular event may not be held this round.

Yachting NZ was given a funding boost just before Christmas last year - from $3.98 million to $4.2 million - thanks to its two Olympic medals in Marseilles, but both Johannsen and Gladwell point out that in sailing, that doesn't go far.

Meanwhile the coroner in the Olivia Podmore case has been asking questions over why disputes over selection have to be so combative - and a lawyer involved in that case has suggested removing the lawyers, with athletes and selectors sitting down to talk over their decisions.

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