David Crawford’s long-awaited report into Olympic funding yesterday created the sort of impact — and yelp of pain — in the corridors of the Australian Olympic Committee that Dean Lukin’s 240kg-loaded barbell might have done had he dropped it on John Coates’ foot.
For Crawford’s recommendations that the Federal Government cut back on the funding of some smaller Olympic sports — weightlifting among them — in favour of encouraging greater public participation in sport, and boosting ‘national psyche’ sports such as tennis, cricket, cycling and surf lifesaving, are dramatic and far-reaching.
Essentially, the report is saying to the Government: get serious, it’s time for a rethink on Olympic funding; the AOC’s demand for $109million to maintain a top-five position in the medal table is unrealistic because we are competing in a race with much bigger, more powerful rivals that we cannot hope to win; and the bias towards some Olympic funding — at the expense of other more popular, mainstream sports — made little strategic sense.
Coates, the AOC president, was immediately on the front foot — the one Lukin’s barbell didn’t crush — saying the report insulted everyone who worked hard for the Olympic movement since its nadir in 1976 when the Australian team came back from Montreal with not one gold medal. He said Crawford’s five-person panel was ignorant and disrespectful of Australia’s Olympic traditions and it was un-Australian that we settle for second best.
But on the surface, it’s hard to take issue with the thrust of Crawford’s report. In fact, most of it makes perfect sense.
At a time when we’ve just emerged from recession, when childhood obesity in Australia is at an all-time high and when some state schools have little or no sporting equipment — let alone PE teachers to supervise that sport — it’s a great moment to be having this debate. And posing the question: as a matter of public policy, should government sports funding subsidise elite athletes and the pursuit of Olympic medals in minor disciplines, or encourage junior sport and popular community team sports such as cricket, the football codes, netball and hockey?
The report says Olympic medals come at great cost — perhaps $15 million per gold medal. That’s an awful lot of money to spend just so the nation can bask in a fleeting moment of glory. How many cricket sets, or footballs, or netball rings would $15million buy for neglected state schools in the country?
I’ve written about sport for 20 years and covered two Olympic Games — in Sydney and Athens — but I have to say there’s not much in the report with which I can seriously quibble. We all got very excited about the gold medals won by Simon Fairweather (archery), Lauren Burns (taekwondo) and the women’s water polo team in Sydney, and then Suzie Balogh’s trap-shooting gold in Athens, and we shared in their joy. But the brutal truth is for the other 3.9 years in between Olympic Games, we wouldn’t have known, or much cared, how these individuals or teams were performing.
In saying Australia should stop trying to over-achieve on the Olympic medals table — a top-10 finish was more than satisfactory — Crawford’s panel urged a review of the funding of these smaller sports such as taekwondo, archery and water polo. It said the money saved on them would be better spent on projects which benefited the greater sports-playing community. Water polo, for example, received as much high-performance and AIS funding as golf, tennis and lawn bowls combined.
Coates countered by describing the recommendations as an insult to “great Olympic champions” of the past. He asked whether Crawford was suggesting that the gold medals won in Beijing by diver Matt Mitcham, pole vaulter Steve Hooker and kayaker Ken Wallace meant nothing to the Australian people.
Of course they were significant achievements and they did mean something to Australians. But not everything. Once upon a time, our sense of self-worth as a nation might have been tied up in our lofty position on the Olympic medal table. How we consistently punched above our weight and reveled in the vicarious pleasure of giving those Yanks and Russians and East Germans a bloody nose. Not anymore. We’re past that and I reckon most people understand that there are more pressing priorities for government funding.
Coates and his Olympic brethren have clearly been taken aback by this 240-kg reality check. And they’re now behaving like the spoilt child who’s had a toy taken away from them in the sandpit. Their sense of entitlement is breathtaking — and, it has to be said, winning them few new friends in the court of public opinion.
There was a time when decent sport loving Australians looked askance at the athlete “factories” produced by Eastern Bloc countries such as East Germany to demonstrate the superiority of the Communist state. Australia’s historical competitive advantage because of our healthy lifestyle meant that despite a relatively small population we had a superior relative ranking in world competitions.
The amount of of money pumped into the Australian Institute Sport International it is a national disgrace to benefit a few elite athletes so John Coates can get his rocks off.
Personally I do not care where we rank in the Olympic Games provided our athletes do their best. There are much better ways allocate these resources for social benefit for the majority ofAustralians. Encouraging wider participation in sporting and exercise activities would be a good start. Let John Coates spend the money that he screws out of the Olympic system to support his athletes, and keep his hand out of the taxpayer’s pocket.
Wot Greg sed.
The entire ethos of the Olympic movement has been lost. Every four years billions of dollars are expended, with a significant proportion on consultants, lawyers, lobbyists and influence peddling. The remainder is spent on sporting facilities of arguable future utility, accessible to a limited percentage of the host country’s population and at some significant cost to the local residents and culture (Beijing being the most recent example). A proportion, normally relatively small and undisclosed for commercial reasons, is recouped from television and sponsorship rights.
Aside from the diversion of serious money from more critical societal needs, the ‘investment’ in such a spectacle does little to bring nations together. An alternative option would be to develop and maintain a single international venue for the Olympics, and develop a global fund to sponsor underrepresented nations and enhance their sporting capabilities.
Australia has gone well beyond sporting achievement being a measure of our stature as a country and people. I admire people who have sacrificed much of their life dedicated to being champions in their chosen sport, but admire far more the teachers, researchers, surgeons, volunteers, philanthropists, soldiers and statesmen who’s sacrifice and brilliance raises the quality of life for current and future generations.
Focussing on ‘winnable’ sports at the expense of smaller sports would make sense. Some gifted sports people will lose out, but many more children will benefit from their loss.
You’re Australian and a sports “journalist”? Makes sense. Explains why this article has the inane use of the word “sense”, as if everyone in Australia thinks exactly the same way the write does. Theres a reason Roy and HG endlessly poke fun at Australian sports “journalism”. Its of such a lot standard. I can hop on a site like cricinfo and be guaranteed to see an article written by a non-Australian that will be far superior to the slop dished up in this country.
Firstly, why should the major sports get increased tax payer funding? National psyche? The Olympics out rates both rugby league and AFL. The only sporting events that unite Australia are the Summer Olympics and recently the FIFA World Cup. I’m from Sydney. I can’t even begin to describe the intense and complete lack of interest in AFL. Nor do I care about the boofheads in rugby leage. Two sports that mean nothing in the world. How can AFL be in the national psyche when there isnt even a national team? (sorry, the hybrid Ireland v Australia matches dont count). Rugby League is played by rugby rejects in NZ and a couple of towns in Yorkshire and Lancashire in England. Oh, and the powerhouse that is PNG.
I’d rather watch Steve Hooker win the pole vault at the Olympics than some boofhead run around in some mickey mouse Australian league in sports that don’t matter.