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Coaches of Australia’s Olympic medallists have become cost-cutting casualties, with officials deciding today to axe their funding under the nation’s medal incentive scheme.
The Australian Olympic Committee’s $30 million budget for the 2012 London Games will not include any payments to coaches of Olympic medallists from next year onwards, with only medal-winning athletes from Beijing and upcoming world championships to receive AOC cash.
Coaches had been eligible to receive AOC payments of up to $4,000 a year leading up to this year’s Games.
But those bonus payments – 20 per cent of the amounts paid to medal-winning athletes – will vanish from 2009.
AOC president John Coates shrugged off fears of an Australian coaching talent drain to other cashed-up, success-hungry nations such as China or 2012 host nation Great Britain as a result of the cuts.
He said while the savings were significant for his organisation, they were not make or break for coaches – the majority of whom were already paid for their efforts.
“We had to cut the cloth somewhere,” Coates said.
“Something had to go, and we took the view the coaches of those of our athletes who win medals … most of them are either in the business of coaching or are employed by the AIS, state institutes of sport or the national sports federations.
“We’re giving our priority to the athletes.
“The amount of money that equates to is a very small amount. The loss of that isn’t going to send you to China.”
Coates said the AOC was budgeting for a a 400-strong Australian team for London, slightly down on the 435 who competed in Beijing.
Already the AOC has locked in around $29 million of the $34 million in sponsorship money it was seeking before 2012.
But Coates warned a massive injection of government funding into Australian sport was crucial to Australia’s hopes of finishing in the medal tally top five in London.
“We need a serious injection of funding into the national sports system to fund our member federations for the preparation of our athletes before they come into our teams,” Coates said.
“Unless we get a big kicker such as the federal government gave in 1993 – that was an additional $135 million and I sense we’ll need much more than that this time – then our target of 55 medals which I think we’ll need to get in the top five will not be achievable.”
After its executive meeting in Melbourne on Friday, the AOC also announced dual Olympic rowing gold medallist Nick Green would take over from Coates as the team’s chef de mission for London.
Coates has led the team for the past six summer Games.
“I was 38 when I took my first Olympic team to Seoul in 1988 and I believe it is time to give a younger person a go,” Coates said.
“Nick’s appointment represents a generational change in the leadership of our teams.”
But Coates still wants to remain AOC president, and confirmed he may seek a spot on the International Olympic Committee executive board next year.