The relentless pursuit for medals in high performance sports in New Zealand could be a big contributor to the issues appearing around athlete welfare.
That's the opinion of NZ Athletes Federation chairman Rob Nichol after it was announced yesterday Sport New Zealand is launching a review into athlete welfare following the recently surfaced scandals at Cycling NZ and Football NZ.
Nichol, who is also the chief executive of the NZ Rugby Players' Association, says the desire to win at all costs could be a factor in the alleged behavioural issues of under-investigation coaches Anthony Peden and Andreas Heraf.
"The thing about a medal is it's just an output and it's a product of something, we would argue, of having a very good environment with good people, including athletes and coaches, involved, working very hard and aligned on how they're going to go about achieving what they need to achieve," he said.
"If you become too focused on the medal and consumed by the medal you miss all that stuff beforehand and you'll trip up and you'll get something wrong along the way and the chances of the medal resulting are massively diminished."
Both Cycling NZ and Football NZ have launched independent investigations in the past month after it was revealed that athletes had issues with the behaviour of coaches in recent history.
1 NEWS revealed last month former sprint coach Peden displayed inappropriate behaviour while working for Cycling NZ, including allegations of bullying and an inappropriate relationship with an athlete.
Football NZ announced yesterday Football Ferns coach Heraf had been put on "special leave" after 13 players wrote to the governing body refusing to play under him again due to a toxic environment created in the team.
Nichol says Sport NZ's review has been a long time coming.
"This is about having a really positive workplace and employment environment where everyone's respected and they understand what their role is and what they're to do if they have an issue," he said.
"A crucial component to any high performance sporting environment is the athletes so you want them engaged and involved in the process and the decisions that are made that effect those environments.
"It's just an absolute no-brainer to be honest."
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