It takes talent and determination to become an Olympic champion, but finding the funds to get the Games takes a different type of skill.
Now the New Zealand Olympic Committee has found a new funding stream, partnering with home-building company Jennian Homes, to help assist New Zealand athletes in getting to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
This afternoon, the first of four Olympic homes to be built in the lead-up to those games was unveiled in Christchurch.
Each home will be acquired by the Olympic Committee and then sold, with profits helping fund the NZ team.
Sharon Van Gulik, commercial director of the NZOC, says the project came out of a discussion with Jennian Homes about innovative ways to support the team, while building brand value for both sides.
"And one of the things that Richard - one of the owners - said was, 'Why don't we build homes together?'," she says. "I thought it was a brilliant idea.. I'm disappointed we hadn't thought of earlier."
A couple of Olympic athletes were on hand to help celebrate the project's launch.
"It costs money, it costs a lot of money," Kerr said.
"And so to have amazing partners like Jennian Homes to to do cool things like this for the campaign, it really, really adds value, and it's very essential.”
Cross-country mountain biker Anton Cooper agrees that having broader financial support is vital for sportspeople.
"We don't work a regular job, and it’s often not salary base for a lot of athletes," Cooper says.
"We rely on funding through the High-Performance Sport, through the NZOC and our various kind of sporting organizations to fund us."
This first Olympic House is a short walk from Christchurch’s Nga Puna Wai high-performance centre. The second of four houses planned is already under construction, situated a stone's throw from the Cambridge cycling Velodrome.
- By John Spurdle
- Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
