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One of the most important facets of the Australian identity is its sporting prowess. An ability to punch well above our weight on the sporting field is the central cog in Australia’s image of itself as a small country mixing in big circles.
Throughout the period of the late 90s and early 00s, Australia enjoyed an unrivalled golden age of dominance of global sport: we had the ‘greatest Olympics ever’, the 1999 Rugby World Champions, arguably the greatest cricket side ever assembled, an all Australian final at a tennis grand slam, Ian Thorpe, Grant Hackett, and the smashing of the guitars in the Olympic pool … the list could go on.
Australia were the benchmark in the sporting world.
Over the last two years, a worrying trend has begun to appear: a Japanese one two in the race that stops a nation, the Kiwis winning the rugby league World Cup (ironic considering their fortunes in their more favoured code), a lost Test series on Australian soil, defeats to the old enemy in cricket, rugby, and the Olympic medal tally, and not a single Australian male in the world’s top 100 tennis players.
Of course, we have also seen a few triumphs of what is the typical Australian spirit, Geoff Ogilvy cracking our golfing major drought. And the Socceroos’ inspiring run at the 2006 football World Cup.
However, one-off successes do not hide a worrying trend and questions must be asked.
The most pressing question is, has Australia lost its touch? Or is the world simply becoming more serious and professional about its sport?
The answer is a combination of both, and to properly understand this, the best example is probably the changing nature of the tennis world.
Australia has not a single male in the top 100 players in the world, but we are not alone amongst the established world order of tennis nations that are struggling.
England are desperately attempting to claim Andy Murray in lieu of any real Englishmen, even America are struggling with a worrying lack of young players coming through to replace the aging pair Andy Roddick and James Blake.
What we are seeing is the emergence of the developing world.
The new world order in tennis comes from the Balkan nations of Serbia, Russia, as well as Argentina and Latvia; nations that are increasingly devoting more money to the development of athletes, and with sheer weight of young players coming through.
How will Australia ever compete again? Will we ever be the dominant force we were only ten years ago? Or has the time come when the Australian spirit simply cannot match international dollars?
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