The Olympics are barely over, the Paralympics have just started, and there are four more months of sporting moments to go before members of the Halberg Trust voting academy need to decide who gets their secret ballot.
Finalists for coach of the year, team of the year, disabled sportsperson of the year, sportswoman of the year, sportsman of the year and the "supreme" Halberg Award won't be announced until January 1, 2013, so there will be plenty of talkback shows, opinion columns and workplace discussions to come.
The debate has already started, especially when our female athletes and teams keep doing so well on the international stage.
Valerie Adams and Lisa Carrington were at the top of the pedestal until their status was challenged by young golfing guru Lydia Ko. All three are also eligible for the supreme award.
At the heart of this debate are issues such as whether a gold medal at the Olympics deserves higher accolades than winning pinnacle sporting events at a young age.
Another issue, and one people are probably uncomfortable admitting, has to do with where someone was born and bred and with which ethnic group they identify. Based on these two methods of comparison - international significance of performance and level of "New Zealandness" - who comes out on top?
Valerie Adams won the 2012 World Indoor Championships with a new indoor personal best, and the controversy surrounding her experience at the Olympics, and her eventual winning of the gold medal definitely makes for a dramatic story.
Lisa Carrington won gold medals at the 2012 Oceania Championships, set an Olympic record time in the semifinals of the K1 200m event, and then went on to win a gold medal in the final. Her late and fast dash at the end of the Games made her one of the unexpected darlings of the New Zealand Olympic team.
Lydia Ko kicked off the year by winning the New South Wales Open at the age of 14 (first age record she held momentarily), finished the US Women's Open, her first major championship, as the top amateur, won the US Amateur Championship, and most recently became the youngest player to win an LPGA Tour championship at the Canadian Open. Another feel-good story to consider.
When voting, the Halberg Academy must consider whether the achievement was in that sport's pinnacle event, was a "world" record, ranking or recognition of some sort, and what the quality the competition was. The global nature of the sport also needs to be taken into consideration.
No-one doubts that the Olympics would be considered the pinnacle event for both athletics and flatwater canoeing and many consider the LPGA tour as the sport's top professional tour, so it is a close race regarding sporting achievements.
What about levels of "New Zealandness"?
Does that matter?
The only reference to identity in the Halberg Awards criteria is that all individuals considered must be New Zealand citizens or hold a resident or permanent resident Visa. It doesn't matter where they reside (here or overseas), and in the coach of the year category New Zealanders coaching athletes/teams from other countries are still eligible.
Taking this into consideration, Switzerland-based Adams, who has a Tongan mother, English father and was born in Rotorua, Whakatane-based and Tauranga-born Lisa Carrington, of Ngati Porou and Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki descent, and Korean-born, North Harbour-based Lydia Ko, who moved to New Zealand when she was 6 and is a genuine New Zealand citizen, are all eligible for the Halberg Awards.
This demonstrates how diverse and global New Zealand as a nation is becoming and is something we should embrace and celebrate. According to the 2011 Census information, 69% of those surveyed identified as "New Zealand European", 14.6% as "Māori", 9.2% as Asian, and 6.9% as Pacific Island.
These young women have demonstrated that being a "New Zealander" as it goes through growing pains associated with diversity is not necessarily a barrier to success on the international sporting stage. All three of them are committed, hard-working and talented individuals and their achievements will enrich the way we, New Zealanders, see ourselves. May the best woman, irrespective of the colour of her skin, or level of "Kiwiness" she portrays, win.
