Written by The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) will strive to deliver national pride and inspiration through international sporting success.” – AIS
Last month the budget documents for Australia’s involvement in the Tokyo Olympic Games were released. The outlay is expected to be massive. In total this year, the Australian Federal Government has committed $350 million on sport, split between grassroots sporting ventures administered through Sports Australia and elite programs and events handled by the AIS. More funds directly from the AIS budget go towards staffing and facilities. It is difficult to give the exact amount, but it has been estimated that sport in Australia costs the country about a quarter of a billion dollars in Federal government spending each year.
The elephant in the room of course is the lacklustre performance of Australia’s Olympians since their huge success at the Sydney Games in 2000 and in Athens in 2004. The slide since then has led us to a 10th place finish with only 29 medals, a mere eight of them gold, at Rio de Janeiro in 2016. At the time the bean-counters tabulated that the cost of each of those medals comes out at $16 million. Even before that, in 2014, the Sydney Morning Herald, screamed out in its headlines; “Stop wasting taxpayers’ money on sport funding.”
Of course, as is usually the case at budget time, the stakeholders are at odds. There are those, primarily within the sporting community, who believe sport to be woefully underfunded in Australia. In 2018, 41 past and present athletes signed a letter begging for a healthier investment in sport. Among these names, were legendary performers such as swimming star Ian Thorpe. Australian Olympic Committee chief executive Matt Carroll blames the decline in funding for the decline in performance, this is a point of some contention in general given the identified behavioral issues during recent Olympic Games. Despite protests however, additional funding has been allocated in the lead up to Tokyo in what has been likened to an “ultra-competitive arms race” where nations are throwing money at their sporting ‘money-makers’. Sport Australia itself in its 2030 plan, warned of this global monetary one-up-man-ship.
Now as Australia looks towards the 2032 Olympics in Brisbane, Queensland, the originally budgeted $4.45 billion price tag has already jumped up by $1.35 million and is tipped to climb further still in the next 11 years.
Given this animosity over funding, the sporting world should remain vigilant in establishing a culture of generosity, education, and charity. There are those who will always believe funding should be allocated differently, certainly with people homeless and starving, it seems a huge ask to expect people to justify this expense on sport. The cultural relationship between the sporting community and the rest of the country is important, so the culture within the organization should be mindful of this and strive to present dignified behavior and a clear effort to do as well as they can in honor of their nation.
Brisbane 2032 Olympic host costs are already soaring (afr.com)