Read Getting Set for an Active Nation - Sport New Zealand

as tennis, rowing, canoeing, shearing, wood chopping, yachting, equestrian, mountaineering,
triathlon, and squash have seen world champions emerge from New Zealand. Technology
and international competition have become inextricably linked with commercialism and
sponsorship, which has been apparent in such ventures as the America’s Cup, held by a New
Zealand syndicate at the time of this report.
Elite sport in the post-World War II decades saw special achievements of athletes, sailors,
rugby teams, paralympians, equestrians, and many other singular sports people from Williams
to Loader, Devoy to Waddell. At the elite level, the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games results
focused the magnifying glass of public scrutiny upon the support, selection and preparation of
New Zealand’s elite athletes. The assigned expenditure fuelled discussion on the allocations
for elite sport and the neglected emphasis upon coach expertise and development. Resultant
debates over sport structures and targeted expenditure have underscored the role of the
Ministerial Taskforce on Sport, Fitness and Leisure in late 2000.
Significant in the development of New Zealand recreation and sport has been its shaping and
construction by the media. The international reach of television, especially, has presented
American basketball, boxers and track stars in New Zealand homes more readily than most
New Zealand sports have been able to achieve.
In terms of participation rates, there are suggestions that fewer New Zealanders are playing
sport and that this is more evident in the 40+ age group. The New Zealanders most likely to
be actively engaged in sport are aged 15-29 years and in households earning less than
$30,000, or over $70,000. The less involved are women, older New Zealanders and people
living in the upper North Island.
Figures on New Zealanders’ levels of activity are not always definitive in Hillary Commission
documents but its Sport and Physical Activity Survey (1997-98) indicates one in three New
Zealanders is physically inactive, with males being more active than females. Despite New
Zealand’s image of an active outdoor environment there are real “constraints to leisure”
(Genet, 2000) felt by urban residents at least.
Sport has become a major consideration in the social and economic life of New Zealand. It
has, arguably, become justified less on grounds of social and moral values than as the domain
of fitness, commercial imperatives and branding. In 2000 AD recreation and sport may be
viewed significantly through the lens of the media, vested commercial interests, the “amateurprofessional”
debate, or bound up with international competition, politics, funding, national
prestige, or the subtle forces of symbolism. These have all been illustrated in the
establishment of the Warrior’s rugby league team, the Kingz soccer team, Super 12 rugby and
part-professional netball in the late 1990s. At the grassroots of New Zealand recreation and
sport the clubs, volunteers and schools and diverse forms of participation continue to seed the
involvement of New Zealanders in this vital sector of New Zealand life.
Changes in sport, fitness and leisure through the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s revealed:
• Shifts in societal attitudes.
• The impact of international media.
• Sport organisations with variable management capabilities.
• Variable numbers of volunteer participation.
Ministerial Taskforce on Sport, Fitness & Leisure January 2001 page 22 of 153