New research questions ‘win-at-all-costs’ sport culture

Are the systems designed to support New Zealand’s high-performance athletes harming them instead?

Difficult questions about the true cost of elite sporting success in New Zealand have been raised by athlete complaints in a variety of sports in the past few years.

Recent Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington Master of Commerce graduate Wayne Aquila believes the systems designed to support athletes may instead be contributing to their harm.

In high-performance sport, success is typically measured by results. Aquila’s work suggests that the human cost of achieving those results has received far less attention.

His research was influenced by growing global concern about toxic cultures in elite sport, where athletes have increasingly spoken out about bullying, abuse and poor treatment.

He examined how power operates in high-performance sport environments and how it shapes athlete well-being, using the case of Olympic cyclist Olivia Podmore as a critical lens.

“I found that the issues raised in her case and others are not isolated incidents but reflect deeper structural problems.”

There was a disconnect between what organizations said about caring for athletes and athletes’ lived experiences, Aquila’s thesis found.

At the core of his thesis is a stark finding: While organizations emphasize care and support, well-being is often secondary to performance outcomes such as medals, rankings and funding success.

“I found that athlete well-being was frequently commodified, positioned as something to be optimized to achieve performance outcomes such as funding success, medals and national pride.

“There is a win-at-all-costs culture embedded in funding models and performance expectations.

“What athletes pay in well-being to achieve those wins is not tallied with the same focus.”

There is tension within the system, where organizations promote well-being while simultaneously prioritizing outcomes that may undermine it.

Aquila’s study outlined how control is exercised within the high-performance system.

Well-being is defined, measured and monitored by organizations, often through standardized tools and frameworks. While these appear supportive on the surface, they can also function as mechanisms of oversight, limiting athlete autonomy and reinforcing top-down decision-making.

He also found that official narratives tended to downplay or even omit critical events and findings that exposed systemic failings. In doing so, organizations can present an image of progress without fully engaging with the underlying causes of harm.

The result is that elite athletes face high levels of stress, burnout and mental health challenges, which can be amplified by performance pressure, public scrutiny and organizational expectations.

These issues aren’t confined to a single sport, he says.

Repeated inquiries across multiple sports have highlighted similar issues of culture, power imbalance and inadequate support.

“Women’s rugby, gymnastics, canoeing, kayaking, cycling—this is affecting a whole lot of sports right across the board.”

The consequences, Aquila argues, go beyond sport. High-performance systems in New Zealand are publicly funded and closely tied to national identity, making athletes’ well-being a matter of broader public concern.

Meaningful change is needed but will require more than incremental reform, he believes.

“We need to rethink how success is defined and how power is distributed in our systems. That may require rethinking our funding models, and it should include giving our athletes a stronger voice in decision-making.

“Well-being frameworks need to reflect genuine care rather than performance optimization.

“The challenge I see is: Can elite sport deliver national success without compromising the health, dignity and humanity of the athletes we love to cheer for?”

Aquila is now beginning a Ph.D. at Victoria University of Wellington, where he plans to further explore ethics, power and well-being in organizational systems.

Who’s behind this story?

Swati Mestri

Swati Mestri holds a bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering and has worked as a content editor since 2019. She has experience editing research documents across technology, health care, and materials science, and has a particular interest in technology and space.

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Andrew Zinin

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