Supporting Otago Athletes for over 26 years.
The Otago Academy of Sport has co-ordinated, managed and delivered a wide range of services to hundreds of athletes across Otago, supporting, mentoring and aiding them to reach their full potential and to enjoy the process in a healthy and joyful way. Many of these athletes have gone on to representing the Otago region and New Zealand in age grades and National open levels. Many of them are also huge contributors to sport in our region, coaching and managing athletes and teams, referring and involved in sport administration. The Academy is also on hand to help with not only their own athletic journey, but giving back to their sport, supporting them with their coaching and community commitments. Not every athlete can be selected for our programmes but the ones that do are encouraged to share their newfound knowledge and experiences with their teammates and athletes they coach. Our incredible and experienced providers across athlete development, sports science and sports medicine fields, are so dedicated to supporting our regional athletes and helping them to achieve their goals, in sport and life.
OAS Vision:
Otago Athletes reaching their full potential.
OAS Purpose:
Purpose To nurture and develop athletes through multidisciplinary sport science support.
(Photo: Alex Walker: 400M athlete 2026)
(Photo: Ella Rowe Year 2 Athlete 2026)
Athlete Wellbeing & Community Reach
Our goal is to grow great athletes and great people who give back to their communities. The second year of our programme looks to develop leadership skills, with our athletes understanding the benefit of giving back their newfound knowledge and skills to their clubs– members, teammates and whanau, assisting with administration roles, officiating, coaching and mentoring of other athletes. All our programmes have a focus on health and wellbeing, educating the athletes to be healthy in mind and body, which leads to healthy whanau and healthy communities. We also offer sport science services to the Otago sporting community in the form of workshops and group practical sessions extending our reach even further.
OAS Projects
In addition to this, OAS offers services to teams, schools and Academy programmes where sport science expertise and athlete health and wellbeing support is requested.
We are also contracted by the Motorsport NZ Scholarship Trust and Motorsport NZ to run the NZ Elite Motorsport Academy Camp and Graduate Programme. We have been running this very successful programme for 22 years, working with some of NZ’s most talented upcoming motorsport athletes. Please check out our annual reports under the “About” section to see the many fantastic athletes who have come through the Otago Academy Programmes.
