- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Every mining operation needs a well-structured business model.
So it goes for the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), whose new Winning Edge strategy aims to speed up the nation’s stuttering gold conveyor belt at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
You may have missed it, but last year the AIS traded in the pigeon clay shotgun for the more accurate rifle.
Rather than persist with a scattergun approach of developing youngsters through scholarships, they’re now scoping out sports where athletes are already showing strong potential – and firing in the cash accordingly.
The curtain literally came down on the old ways of the AIS when they unveiled their dynamic new logo at a launch in Canberra on Monday.
Attached with a $500,000 price tag, the sleek new golden symbol is in stark contrast – both in design and cost – to the red and blue logo it replaced, which was designed by a student from Bendigo in 1981.
The Australian Sports Commission (ASC) argues that just like a business, you’ve got to spend money to attract investment, with chairman John Wylie adding the AIS is now “unashamedly investing for success”.
Wylie knows a thing or two about business and investment, having received an Order of Australia for services to the investment banking sector in 2007.
Appointed to his new role in September 2012, he’s wasted no time in overhauling the flow of where $120 million worth of taxpayer’s money is distributed to national sporting organisations (NSOs) each year.
“The AIS has reinterpreted their role as the peak body in Australian sport,” Wylie says.
Long gone are the days where the AIS is used as a centralised base for promising young athletes lucky enough to jag a scholarship – instead focussing on the high performance end of the spectrum.
The AIS has put a greater emphasis on providing technical guidance and education to coaches and leaders, as well as providing facilities for the NSOs to come and use.
“We’ve made a focus on sports science, strategy and medicine, as well as a focus on strategic goals,” Wylie adds.
Those strategic goals include top-five finishes at each Olympic and Paralympic Games, first at the Commonwealth Games, top 15 at the Winter Olympics, and producing 20 world champions every year.
AIS director Matt Favier says they’ve applied their investment model to align with those targets.
“Every sport has a different performance opportunity – for example, track and field has 47 medal events, swimming has 34, hockey has two.
“So we apply logic around our investment model. We’ve learnt from business.”
However, the investment the AIS now pumps into each NSO relies on more than just the number of medals available.
Other factors include Australia’s natural landscape advantage, competition strength, and the quality of young talent.
That means sports where Australia has traditionally succeeded, such as swimming, cycling and rowing, will continue to receive strong funding.
But other disciplines with emerging podium potential – including BMX, triathlon, canoeing, boxing, judo, sailing and taekwondo – are also being heavily earmarked as sports that can put the element “Au” back into Australia.