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Image: Getty Images / Tina Tiller
Image: Getty Images / Tina Tiller

SportsMay 29, 2024

The complicated path to Olympic selection, explained

Image: Getty Images / Tina Tiller
Image: Getty Images / Tina Tiller

Approximately 200 New Zealand athletes will head to the Olympics in Paris in July. While they’ve worked hard to have a shot at their Olympic dream, other athletes miss out. Zoe George looks at what separates the chosen ones from the also-rans.

I’m really good at sport and would love to compete in the Olympics. Do I just fill out an expression of interest?

If only it was that easy!

Here’s how it actually works: each Olympic sport has different qualifying criteria set by its international federation (IF). Each sport gets a “quota”, or number of athletes they can send to the Games.

Let’s use athletics as an example. There are two qualification pathways. Approximately 50% of places are given to athletes who meet entry standards – including achieving various metrics/times – at World Athletics events, and the remaining places are given to those with world rankings during the “qualification period”.

Also, only three athletes from each discipline can be entered by their national Olympic committee. So you might reach the IF criteria but if there are three other athletes in your discipline from New Zealand who are better than you, bad luck.

Rowing Women’s Four Kerri Williams, Davina Waddy, Jackie Gowler and Phoebe Spoors at a pre-Olympics event on February 27, 2024. (Photo: Michael Bradley/Getty Images for NZOC)

Am I more likely to get to the Olympics playing a team sport or an individual event?

This is an incredibly complex question and a tough one to answer.

You have to be an excellent athlete in your own right to secure any place, in any sport at the Games. The vast majority of the 32 sports in Paris are individual sports, some with a certain “team” element – think the 4 x 200m freestyle relay in swimming or the coxless four in rowing.

Other team sports include handball, hockey, football, basketball 3×3 and rugby sevens. Thanks to the growing popularity of the last three in Aotearoa, you’re competing with lots of other athletes for the coveted spots. But once you’re in the team, there’s less pressure on meeting individual standards.

I’ve met the IF criteria, and I’m the best athlete in my sport in NZ. Can I go now?

No. You need to be “nominated” by your sport to the New Zealand Olympic Committee for consideration, and you have to meet additional NZOC standards too.

For individual athletes – or in sports where athletes compete together in a relay, pairs, etc – along with meeting IF standards, you must also be capable of achieving a top 16 place at the Games, with the potential of gaining an Olympic Diploma (top eight), and have a track record that demonstrates you will be competitive.

Even if you don’t meet the last two criteria, you can still be selected at the NZOC’s discretion if you will have a positive impact on another athlete’s chances at a medal – for example, Caitlin Deans and Laticia-Leigh Transom have been added to the women’s 4 x 200m freestyle relay supporting Erika Fairweather and Eve Thomas. You can also achieve selection if you will likely place in the top eight at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.

This week the “top eight at LA” criteria came into question when it was revealed 49erFX class sailors Jo Aleh and Molly Meech – who have three previous Olympic medals between them – were selected without meeting selection criteria, namely not achieving a top 10 placing at selection regattas, in part because of their chances of doing well in Los Angeles.

For teams, they need to meet their IF requirements, and be capable of advancing beyond the first round and into the top eight, among other criteria.

Your behaviour, other extenuating circumstances like injury, and you fully complying to NZOC’s anti-doping regulations are also taken into consideration.

Weightlifter David Liti gets a hug from 98 year old Mary Cutler at the Olympic Games New Zealand weightlifting selection announcement at the Logan Campbell Retirement Village, on May 21, 2024. (Photo: Phil Walter/Getty Images for NZOC)

I’m an individual athlete. What does that mean exactly?

Let’s say your International Federation has 30 Olympic quota spots, you squeak in by meeting qualifying criteria and you’re ranked 29th in the world. You may have qualified, but the NZOC may deem you incapable of achieving a top 16 place. Guess what, you might not be going to the Games.

That’s not fair!

Some athletes agree with you! This “top 16” rule has thwarted many athletes’ dreams of competing at the Olympics.

Pole vaulter Eliza McCartney recently criticised the policy and is calling for the NZOC to overhaul their criteria.

It’s the same criteria that frustrated sprinters Zoe Hobbs and Eddie Osei-Nketia during the Tokyo 2020 Games. The duo qualified under their IF criteria, but the NZOC said no.

Hobbs wrote that non-selection under the NZOC policy hurt. She said non-selection inhibits experience and exposure, and impacts other opportunities including financial support.

Thankfully it didn’t deter Hobbs, who is one to watch in Paris. Osei-Nketia quit sprinting and is now playing US college football.

Sounds like lots of stars need to align. What sport can I move into to have the best shot at going to the Olympics?

New Zealand is incredibly competitive in rowing, athletics, canoe racing and sailing. Aotearoa has won 93 medals from these four sports in our Games history. We also hold our own in swimming, cycling, equestrian and rugby sevens.

On the other hand, the reason we have won fewer track and field medals is because athletics is one of the most-participated sports in the world, so the international standards are incredibly high.

If you’re looking to the future – particularly if you are a woman – start playing cricket, as it’s being added to the LA 2028 Olympics. It’s a sport New Zealand is reasonably competitive at, and thanks to the now serious investment by NZ Cricket into girls and women – including more playing opportunities, better financial support and better pathways – it’s a sport women now have a fighting chance in.

I’ve made it to the Games! What’s the likelihood of winning a medal?

Approximately 1,100 athletes – about 0.02% of all New Zealanders globally right now – have represented Aotearoa in our 104-year Olympic history. (In 1908 and 1912 we formed an “Australasia” team with Australia. We first competed as NZ in 1920.)

In those 104 years, New Zealand has won 143 medals; 55 gold, 35 silver and 53 bronze. Only 16 athletes have won more than two. You do the maths.

Keep going!
Oskar Zawada and the Wellington Phoenix are semi-finals bound, against all pre-season predictions (Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)
Oskar Zawada and the Wellington Phoenix are semi-finals bound, against all pre-season predictions (Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

SportsMay 10, 2024

How the Phoenix went from wooden spoon favourites to title contenders

Oskar Zawada and the Wellington Phoenix are semi-finals bound, against all pre-season predictions (Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)
Oskar Zawada and the Wellington Phoenix are semi-finals bound, against all pre-season predictions (Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

The club’s surprisingly good season is built on the desire to prove a random A-League YouTuber wrong… and a few other factors.

“There’s no way that Wellington Phoenix play finals this year. I can’t see it happening at all.” 

Those are the words of Lachlan Raeside, an Australian football content creator, forecasting a last-place finish for the Phoenix as part of his A-League Men’s ladder prediction last October. His comments didn’t raise too many eyebrows at the time – even die-hard supporters had modest expectations for the side ahead of the 2023-24 season. But they did catch the attention of Giancarlo Italiano.

The team’s new head coach printed out a screenshot of Raeside’s dire prediction and pinned it up in the dressing room, in the hopes of developing a prove-the-doubters-wrong attitude within his squad. It worked. Now “Chiefy”, as Italiano is affectionately known, can tell the doubters to shove their wooden spoons back in the kitchen drawer – the Phoenix are reaching for silverware.

The A-League Men’s only New Zealand side (until Auckland FC enters competition later this year) finished the regular season just two points shy of Premier’s Plate winners Central Coast Mariners. But the pursuit of glory continues, with the A-League Champions Trophy firmly in sight. Now all that stands between the Phoenix and their first ever A-League Grand Final appearance is a home-and-away semi finals series against old foes Melbourne Victory starting on Sunday night. 

Raeside can only take so much of the credit, however. Here’s how the Wellington Phoenix have gone from wooden spoon favourites to title contenders this season.

Proving the doubters wrong

NFL great Tom Brady once disclosed that proving his doubters wrong was his driving motivation – a method it’s safe to say paid dividends for the seven-time Super Bowl winner. It seems to have had a similar impact at the Phoenix. 

Raeside was far from alone in his wooden spoon prediction. Even on this side of the Tasman, few pundits saw the Phoenix making the finals. And, in fairness to them all, such a prediction made plenty of sense.

Heading into this season, only six members of the Phoenix’s starting eleven from their final game of last season remained at the club. Key players like midfield linchpins Clayton Lewis and Steven Ugarkovic, defenders Callan Elliot, Josh Laws and Lucas Mauragis and fan favourite goalkeeper Oli Sail all departed during the off-season. 

But Italiano was unmoved. “I must be missing something,”  he said of the pre-season doom-mongers at the start of the campaign. “They must have knowledge I don’t have to make big calls like that.

“That will fuel all the players. I wouldn’t say it’s offensive towards us, but I’d say it’s very disrespectful, especially with the squad we have.”

The Phoenix players and supporters on Sky Stadium after the final match of the regular season (Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

Investing in youth

Replacing that laundry list of talent was never going to be easy. Recruiting from overseas to plug all those gaps was financially impossible. It meant trusting the fledgling stars of the Phoenix Academy’s ability to fly the nest.

It was a gamble previous boss Ufuk Talay seemed reluctant to take last season, with no new graduates featuring in 2022-23 and others, like Finn Surman, Sam Sutton and Ben Waine, before his move to England, mostly used off the bench, if at all.

But these spring chickens have turned out to be the Phoenix’s golden eggs. Finn Surman has been among the best centre-backs in the competition. Long-term understudy Alex Paulsen finally stepped out of the shade of Oli Sail and has excelled between the sticks (while Sail ended up collecting the wooden spoon at his new club, Perth Glory). 

Ben Old, Oskar van Hattum, Isaac Hughes, Lukas Kelly-Heald, Fin Conchie… the list of important internally-elevated talent goes on. 

“Rightly or wrongly, in years gone by we were recruiting players out of Australia that were probably blocking these kids,” said director of football Shaun Gill at the start of the season.

“Now we’ve gone, let’s look internally first and there has to be someone demonstrably better than someone in our academy to see us not sign an academy player.”

The Phoenix’s league standing certainly justifies the refreshed approach.

Young goalkeeper Alex Paulsen has been one of the Phoenix’s players of the season (Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

Solid recruitment

Most naysayers’ biggest concern at the start of the season was recruitment – or the distinct lack of it. Trusting the youngsters was one thing, but bringing in zero big-name replacements for those key departures was another. 

But that discounts the smart recruitment of previous campaigns. The Phoenix spent more money than ever to lure Kosta Barbarouses back to the capital in 2022, along with star Polish striker Oskar Zawada and Bulgarian playmaker Bozhidar Kraev. The latter duo signified a move away from signing 30-plus Brits, the Nix’s traditional visa player archetype, and bringing in players in their prime with a point to prove. 

Meanwhile, Mohamed Al-Taay was a trusted off-season recruit Italiano knew well from his Blacktown City days, and while it took some time to fill the last remaining visa slot left by Yan Sasse’s departure, the industrious Costa Rica international Youstin Salas was a shrewd January addition. 

The Chiefy factor

Which brings us to “Chiefy”. It wasn’t only players who needed replacing in the off-season, with the departure of the popular Ufuk Talay, who eventually rejoined Sydney FC. Again, the Phoenix promoted from within, with Talay’s understudy stepping into the void.

The former analyst embraced the new direction of the club head-on, empowering the young players while inspiring huge improvements from the more experienced talent pool: Alex Rufer, Scott Wootton and, in particular, top-scorer Barbarouses have massively upped their game under the new management. 

His previous lack of experience coaching at this level was another note in the negatives column for those predicting the ‘Nix’s campaign, but he has been a breath of fresh air among the more curmudgeonly sideline golems of the A-League, the likes of Marko Rudan, Tony Popovic and, let’s be honest, his predecessor. Much like his counterpart at the Mariners, Mark Jackson, Italiano mostly lets the football do the talking. 

That, combined with his attention to detail, open-minded innovation and impressive coaching acumen, has resulted in a stubbornly effective defensive rearguard capable of ruthlessly punishing teams on the counter-attack. 

A little luck

Football is a game of narrow margins, and every title push involves a bit of luck. Other than Zawada, the Phoenix have managed to stay relatively free of long-term injuries this season. And rival clubs in the league were also weakened over the summer, with a record number of talent scooped up by clubs across Europe. 

Even the refereeing decisions, which the Phoenix fans will tell you have always gone against them, have been slightly more favourable this season (the key word being “slightly”). 

The result of all these factors is a two-legged clash against Melbourne Victory standing in the way of a first-ever Grand Final for a Phoenix side that was never expected to make it this far. 

The second leg at Sky Stadium on May 18 is likely to see the Ring of Fire ablaze in a way it hasn’t been for many years. After the tough seasons of pandemic relocation, it’s just rewards for a Phoenix side, and their fanbase, who have lived up to their name this year. 

A team burned, with eight players and their head coach all leaving, they have risen from the ashes to prove all their doubters wrong. That elusive first piece silverware would be the crowning glory.