New Zealand's less-than-wonderful results at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver will no doubt create debate over the value of sending a team to the event at all.
Otago Daily Times sports editor Hayden Meikle argues the lack of medals should not obscure the worth of having a presence at the Games, while sports reporter Steve Hepburn maintains there is no point pouring money into something that pays no dividends.
THE ATTACK
Steve Hepburn
17, 82, 63, 47, 82, 12, 27, 38, 14, and another 82.
What are these numbers? The last 10 Black Caps opening partnerships?If only.
Those numbers are just some of the placings from our under-performing Winter Olympics team.
No single figures, no-one getting within a country mile of the dais.
This may not be vogue in this day and age, but the reason you go to the Olympics is to win.
Or at least compete.
Our 16-strong team is doing neither.
After the first day of the games, the Otago Daily Times ran the headline "Disappointing start for NZ athletes".
That headline could have just stayed at the top of the page for the next two weeks.
Just replace the word start with Games.
Judging by our placings, our team has been woefully off the pace.
And placings are all that they should be judged on.
Sport is all about winning, or at least putting up a brave fight.
Everyone knows that.
From a 5-year-old on the rugby paddock to Lindsey Vonn on her skis.
Biathlete Sarah Murphy, who finished, like many, well down the field, spoke about how she would be primed in four years' time in Sochi in Russia for the next Winter Olympics after her efforts in Vancouver.
But really, is that possible? Are the dozens in front of her going to retire?
At least she was consistent - Murphy was 82nd in both of her events.
But come on, 82nd, what is she doing there?Never mind the fact she appears more Canadian that Kiwi.
Our Olympians in Canada are just making up the numbers.
Ben Koons - enough said.
Shane Dobbin - 17th in the speed skating on the first day.
Game's over for Shane, go sink a few beers.
Flag bearer Juliane Bray - never qualified.
Sparc is said to have put in about $1 million into winter sports for these games and it looks like money down the toilet.
Sure, the athletes have trained hard and made sacrifices but so does every top-class athlete.
Skiing down a very steep hill at a rapid pace of knots is obviously not easy.
But if a lot of people round the world can do it better than you, then what are you doing at an event for the very best?Just because someone qualifies for the event does not mean they should go.
Who set the qualification mark? Family? Travel agents?The team should have been way smaller.
Way, way smaller.
And do not start that argument about the All Whites heading to South Africa, and other New Zealand sporting teams going to events where they do not have much of a chance.
The All Whites were lucky to be granted a dream run to make the finals, and are not totally reliant on government funding to go there.
And they probably will get smashed.
But they will be competitive.
Same with the Black Caps, the New Zealand men's and women's hockey teams, and most teams we send overseas.
But not this mob in Canada.
Competitive?17, 82, 63, 47, 82, 12, 27, 38 . . .
THE DEFENCE
Hayden Meikle
My son doesn't ski.
He wouldn't know the difference between luge and skeleton racing.
His teddy bear is far more important to him than Shaun White or Aksel Lund Svindal.
But you know what? If Elijah Meikle decides later in life he wants to compete in a snow sport and do it at the highest level, I will be pretty cheesed off if New Zealand is no longer bothered to send a team to the Winter Olympics.
See, there is a crucial but often ignored element of sport that is part of why it is imperative we send our country's top athletes to events like this.
Aspiration.
Just as it's important for the Otago Nuggets to be in the national basketball league, illustrating a pathway for young hoops fanatics even if it is one littered with losses, it's important to maintain a presence at the top table of world winter sport.
That sends the right messages: (a) we care; and (b) look where you can get if you work hard and make sacrifices.
And make no mistake, these athletes have worked incredibly hard and made great sacrifices to make it to Vancouver.
Most have had to raise tens of thousands of dollars to fund their own way around the world for years - the perception that the taxpayer is shelling out millions for our Games team is severely misguided - and all have effectively put their lives and loves on hold while they chase their Olympic dream.
In terms of results, it's hard to defend the indefensible.
New Zealand will win nothing, not a solitary bronze medal, in Vancouver, and there's no disguising that.
But you've got to start somewhere, right? Eleventh in 2010 could be third in 2014, and where will the critics be then?New Zealand rugby players get better because they've got a multi-tiered (school, colts, club, provincial, Super 14, All Blacks) development system soaked in history and resources.
Life's a bit harder for those in the cheap sporting seats.
A New Zealand skeleton racer doesn't even have a track in his or her own country.
Some may claim New Zealand shouldn't bother with the Winter Olympics, many Summer Olympic disciplines, the World Cup, the world basketball championships, major golf tournaments and any number of other sports events in which the silver fern is, at best, a slim chance of a top-three placing.
They're wrong.
What a strange, blinkered approach to say we should only send athletes and teams to major events if they have a strong chance of winning.
I hate the expression, but the Winter Olympics are a case of looking at the bigger picture.
We have neither the participation rates nor the embedded snow culture to expect success in winter sport.
That's why we must treat events like the Games a bit differently to something like the world rowing championships.
Expect the athletes to do their best? Absolutely.
Expect medals? No.
Besides, if success is a prerequisite for entering an event, then maybe it should be questioned why the All Blacks continue to enter the Rugby World Cup.
As for Otago continuing to play Ranfurly Shield challenges, don't get me started.
New Zealand's Winter Olympians might not have reached the podium - and yes, in some cases they have performed poorly - but tell the Brown family that their children, Mitchell and Kendall, shouldn't be there.
Tell the Browns that their 20-year-old daughter deserves our criticism for "only" finishing 15th in the halfpipe snowboarding with a dislocated shoulder.
And tell my son that it's a waste of time to chase his dream.
- Has New Zealand performed up to scratch at the Winter Olympics? Or should we save money by sending nobody next time? Have your say by emailing us (sport@odt.co.nz).
