Former Olympic biathlete Sarah Murphy (25) has been ruled out of the Winter Olympics in Sochi after failing to meet the NZOC standard for selection, despite meeting International Olympic Committee standards, set by the International Biathlon Union (IBU).
The situation was ''a bitter pill to swallow'', Biathlon New Zealand executive committee chairman John Burridge said.
''[Murphy] is qualified under the standards of IBU ... and some of those [international biathletes] that she has been beating will be permitted by their own national associations to attend.
''Some of the other nations who know of our New Zealand standards think they're laughable.''
Burridge said the NZOC was interfering with IBU standards despite having ''no knowledge'' of biathlon. The differences needed to be resolved so smaller winter sports could gain more relevant standards.
''There is a clash of strategies between an international body wanting to encourage development countries in that sport and national bodies imposing standards to try and achieve consistency across a wide range of sports.
''NZOC focus on high performance standards and people really only going [to the Olympics] if they're going to get close to the podium.''
Although Murphy had under-performed at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, her involvement had inspired young New Zealand biathletes and helped develop the sport, which now had steadily increasing participation levels, Burridge said.
Spokeswoman Ashley Abbott said NZOC selection criteria were altered after the 2010 Olympics to reflect greater parity with the summer teams, to ensure athletes could perform creditably at the Olympics and to reflect the strengthening winter performance programme.
Burridge argued NZOC changed its criteria to ''protect'' itself from public criticism it received after its athletes finished well down the field in their events in Vancouver.
However, the public expectation that New Zealand's Winter Olympic team would perform any better than it did was ''completely unrealistic given the whole infrastructure is totally inadequate'' for what NZOC hoped to achieve.
''These are highly professional sports with major television coverage outside New Zealand and our efforts to mount proper campaigns are pathetic and inadequately funded,'' Burridge said.
Abbott said NZOC selection standards now required athletes to finish in the top 50% of international fields in 50% of races.
Each sport, including biathlon, had its own nomination criteria developed in conjunction with its national body, which Murphy did not meet.
However, Burridge said the new criteria was forced on Biathlon New Zealand.
''We asked for the criteria to remain unchanged but NZOC were not negotiable. We signed, as if we had not then Sarah would have been blocked totally from any chance. Cross-country [skiing] had the same treatment and they have lost any interest in competing.''
Abbott said although New Zealand had been offered a place for a female biathlete at the Olympics, it was ''really not uncommon for NZOC to hand back quota spots'', or for there to be a disparity between places allocated by NZOC and international sports bodies.
In an email to the Otago Daily Times, Murphy, who usually splits her time between Canada and Wanaka, put her poor performance at Vancouver down to hospitalisation for food poisoning two weeks before the event and the shock of a first Olympics.
She had given 100% to the sport since then - including self-funding a move to Switzerland to train with the national team, hiring a private coach from Italy and racing in four years of world cups and three world championships with no manager or support staff.
''I have had no support from New Zealand, so for me to be able to race competitively in World Cups, and to have made not only the IOC qualification, but many other stronger nations' qualification standard as well, is pretty darn good.''
Murphy planned to end her season after next week's European championships.
''I can not afford to continue, and with the motivation for racing as low as an unselected Olympic athlete's can be, I don't think I could physically push myself for the rest of the season.''
After unsuccessfully lobbying the NZOC for Murphy's Olympic inclusion, Biathlon New Zealand no longer had time to mount a legal challenge on her behalf before the Olympics started on February 7, but would fight the issue in the future, Burridge said.
