The days of winning at all costs are over.
This month, 1 NEWS investigations prompted an independent review into the culture of Cycling New Zealand, and yesterday Football NZ followed suit.
Now our sport watchdog, Sport New Zealand chief executive Peter Miskimmin, admits athlete welfare is so concerning they've coincidentally commissioned top lawyer Stephen Cottrell to do a stocktake.
"You want to win in the right way and protect the rights and interests of your athletes, that's really important in today's world," Miskimmin said.
When asked if he felt things needed to change from what was currently operating in high performance sports in New Zealand, Miskimmin said there was no other choice.
"We only have to look around the world to see that things are changing and I think we need to be open to that sort of change moving forward."
NZ Rugby Players Association chief executive Rob Nichol has been helping give rugby players a voice for nearly two decades and thinks athlete empowerment is crucial.
Rob Nichol says a gold medal should be the product of a healthy environment between coaches and athletes - not the reason things get out of hand.
However the NZ Athletes Federation chairman admitted it was about time.
"I would have liked to have seen it 10 or 15 years ago in some environments because I think, personally, they would have performed better had they had that kind of structure."
George Bridgewater won an Olympic rowing bronze medal in 2008 and says often athletes don't speak out about their welfare because they fear it'll affect their careers.
"By not listening to that or not using some of that expertise or experience, I think there's a lot of value left on the sidelines."
Rowing New Zealand now has a group of athlete representatives who meet with the chief executive and the board and while it's better than many sports, Nichol says athletes don't always have the answers.
"When it comes to dealing with a workplace environment problem or an issue of a grievance, they don’t necessarily have the knowledge on how best to put a process around that to ensure it's dealt with appropriately."
Sport NZ is vowing to make our athletes' workplace better - they expect Cottrell's review to be finished in a couple of months.
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