The Australian government, through its Australian Sports Commission, announced Monday its funding breakdown of $120 million in government money that is to be spent in its “Winning Edge” program that aims to make Australia the world’s best sporting nation.
“The Winning Edge sets high targets for Australia to be a top five nation at the Olympics and Paralympics, top 15 at the winter Olympics and Paralympics, number one at the Commonwealth Games and have more than 20 world champions annually,” ASC chair John Wylie said of the program’s goals.
While other Australian aquatic sports like diving (up to 2.15 Australian Dollars) and water polo (up to 3.11 million Australian Dollars, a 21.5% funding increase) gained funding, swimming took a big financial hit in the latest release.
Still, showing that swimming is still the crown jewel of the Australian Olympic hopes, Swimming Australia is still the largest single sport benefactor of this program for 2013-2014. The $A8.165 million they will receive ranks only behind the entirety of the Paralympic Sports program in terms of funding levels. That’s a 5.8% decrease, or roughly half-a-million dollars in lost funding for the year.
The ASC has added to that $A8.165 million an additional $A616,000 in Participation funding. In the words of Wylie, this money is designed to support “participation initiatives with sports recognising the importance of a clear pathway and the health and well being benefits from sports participation.”
No reason was given specifically for the decrease in funding for the Australians, though the organization is facing much controversy and scandal, combined with its lowest medal output since 1976. Any funding losses could be largely made up thanks to the sport’s newest major benefactor Gina Rinehart, who according to Forbes is Australia’s richest person with a net worth of around $A18 billion.
This could be residual action by governing bodies due to not just the poor medal count, but the seemingly poor attitudes by the top athletes from Australia. The banned-substance use leading up to the Olympics for “fun” might have been a contributing factor and this serves as a “wake-up call” for Australia.
Being an American, I want Australia to be better. It pushes our athletes in return. In the days of Thorpe and Hackett, they WERE the cream of the crop. Now it just seems they are sparsely strong over all events worldwide.
No they are not THAT petty Jim. The funding formulae is not significantly different. They are allocated a budget & spread it according to priorities.
Diving & water polo deserve a bigger portion of the Elite aqua sport budget. They compete internationally well – always near the top – plus are due some new / upgraded facilities & program’s.
Meanwhile we are all hoping for some funding to go to London to have a look around , visit pubs , put our heads in DD cup brassieres & parade around with huge champagne bottles. We are a aspirational nation .