Cook Islands is set to have five representatives at next year's Olympic Games in Tokyo so far, but all five athletes are based elsewhere. 

Travel restrictions also mean it will be hard for other Cook Islands athletes to compete internationally. 

"In some ways, COVID-19 has been a chance for us to reset and think 'hey, we've got to look at our domestic competitions, we've got to start looking at how we're going to develop the next Jane Nicholas here'," Lewis said, as reported by Radio New Zealand.

"We can't always be relying on the New Zealand Cook Islanders or Australian based Cook Islanders, we've actually got to develop our own."

Jane Nicholas is a canoe slalom athlete who was named Cook Islands 2020 Sportswoman of the Year. 

The return of the Cook Island Games has been touted as a possible solution to developing domestic talent. 

Federations would be able to hold their National Championships as part of the Games. 

"Although we're not going to get too much international flavour coming in or going out, it's a positive thing to be able to look inwards and develop our own," Lewis said. 

Lewis also made it clear that CISNOC would still welcome international athletes, but did not want to be seen as a fall-back option. 

"It's lovely when they actually put their hand up and say, 'I want to represent where I'm from' and that's what we're hoping for," he said. 

"We can't offer the same opportunities as you can if you go through the New Zealand system, but we definitely want our people to represent their country of heritage, it's something that we hold highly with pride.

"What we don't want is, we don't want people to fail to get into a New Zealand team and then us be the fall-back option, that's not the ideal."

Cook Islands has competed at eight Summer Olympic Games, starting from Seoul 1988, but has not won a single medal.

The country has not featured at a Winter Olympic Games.