Gold, gold for Australia with the new Olympic Sports

 
Spiro Zavos Columnist

By , 16 Aug 2009 Spiro Zavos is a Roar Expert

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A photographer focuses on the National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nes in Beijing. The stadium will host the opening and closing ceremonies and athletics competition at the Olympic Games, which open Aug. 8. AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty

A photographer focuses on the National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nes in Beijing. The stadium will host the opening and closing ceremonies and athletics competition at the Olympic Games, which open Aug. 8. AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty

The chief executive of the ARU, John O’Neill, went out of his way to praise the efforts of Phil Coles, Kevan Gosper and John Coates in getting the IOC’s executive board to select Sevens Rugby as a new Olympic Sport, along with golf.

The implication in the praise is that Sevens Rugby will  offer an opportunity for Australia to win more medals at the Olympics from 2016 onwards. Some comments on The Roar have poured cold water on this possibility, pointing to Australia’s very poor Sevens Rugby record in recent years.

But it should be remembered in the early days of the famous Hong Kong tournament Australia was so successful (admittedly with the great Ellas and ‘Campo’ making the play) that it has become a tradition to boo any Australian team as a sort of payback for this success.

There is no reason why Australia can’t become as successful in the Olympic Sevens as it has been in the Rugby World Cup tournaments. The chance of being an Olympian – and, hopefully, a medal winner – will no doubt encourage one or two rugby league stars to make the switch. Imagine, say, a latter-day Billy Slater playing Sevens Rugby in 2016.

The Australian Women’s Sevens Rugby side has set the pattern for this shrewd use of outside talent. The team won the inaugural World Women’s Trophy by selecting some quick Touch-Rugby players for their squad. These newcomers blitzed their opponents who were brought up on the traditional 15-aside game.

When Sevens Rugby officially becomes an Olympic sport new streams of money will come into its coffers. This will have the effect of allowing the ARU to pour much greater resources into supporting the men’s and women’s sides in the various IRB tournaments, especially the men’s circuit which has become one of the biggest annual international sports events.

O’Neill could not help himself in his statement on the IOC’s executive board  decision when he pointed out that there is ‘a lot of cache’ in being part of the Olympic movement and ‘it’s certainly an honour some other football codes in this country will never have the chance to experience.’

That ‘ouche!’ you hear is a certain pain being inflicted on Australian Rules Football and the rugby league code.

In the case of golf, it is probably more likely that an Australian woman (another Kerrie Webb?) will win gold before a male golfer. However, men have won the Majors titles and another Greg Norman or Peter Thomson could come through in the next decade or so.

But the view that the decision, from an Australian viewpoint, is all about Sevens Rugby and possibly golf misses the real story behind the decision-making. The IOC’s executive board decisions were far more far-reaching than just bringing in Sevens Rugby and golf as Olympic sports.

The gap between the number of events competed by man against those for women has been shrunk. Only synchronised swimming remains a uni-gender (female) Olympic sport. Far more gender equity than ever before will become part of Olympic sports from 2016 with the addition of extra female divisions in canoeing, wrestling, swimming, cycling and boxing.

It’s a fact of Australian sport that Australian women are stronger medal winners at the Olympic Games than men. By  opening up more gender equity with the extra female divisions, the IOC has surely increased Australia’s chances of winning medals.

And with this increased chance of more medals, we’ll hear more frequent cries from the excited sports commentators of Norman May’s immortal anthem: ‘Gold, gold for Australia!’

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