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Fewer medals, a smaller team and not enough funding.
Australia’s Olympic stocks are looking gloomy five months before the London Games.
Team chief Nick Green has admitted Australia is lagging in its goal of finishing in the top five on the medals table and told the media at the recent AOC general meeting funding since the 2000 Sydney Games had fallen well behind other nations.
FULL AUSTRALIAN OLYMPIC TEAM FOR RIO 2016
Days later, Green was disappointed to accept he’d be taking away a smaller team than he had planned.
The Olyroos failure to score a goal in five Asian qualifying matches ruled them out of London, joining the women’s football team on the outer.
The 1-0 loss to the United Arab Emirates on Thursday left Australia with no soccer representation at the Olympics since 1984 and its smallest Games team since Barcelona in 1992.
The AOC’s aim to take 420 athletes will be revised down to around 400 and could go lower if the men’s volleyballers can’t finish in the top two of the Asian Continental qualification event in Japan in June.
Does size count?
Australia’s 1992 team of 279 athletes won seven gold medals. Four years later in Atlanta, the team jumped to a then record 417 for a return of nine gold.
The biggest away Games team of 482 in Athens in 2004 brought back a record 17 gold medals, while a massive 632 athletes at home in Sydney won 16.
Like the size of the team, the AOC’s benchmarking figure of 15 gold among a total of 35 medals in London – the lowest since 27 in Barcelona – might have to be scaled down.
Based on performances in world championship or equivalent events in 2011, the benchmark figure includes the six gold Australia won at last year’s track cycling world championships, a feat that will not be repeated in London.
The track cyclists had a sobering test event at the World Cup in London last weekend, winning one gold medal, three silver and a bronze in Olympic events.
The men’s team pursuit reinforced their favouritism for Olympic gold with a dominant win over Britain, but the locals suggested they will again be the overall force with four gold.
Australia’s triple world champions Anna Meares and Kaarle McCulloch were beaten in the team sprint by British pair Victoria Pendleton and Jessica Varnish, while a pair of gold medals proved four-time Olympic champion Sir Chris Hoy is as powerful as ever.
But Meares beat arch-rival Pendleton in a draining semi-final of the women’s sprint before her heavy schedule took its toll and she was beaten into silver by China’s Guo Shuang.
The women’s team pursuit showed great improvement, while Annette Edmondson unveiled her potential for a medal in the omnium, prompting Australia’s national performance director Kevin Tabotta to say the team can win a medal in every track cycling event at the Games.
While Green was concerned about funding levels, he was adamant that had nothing to do with soccer’s dual failures.
“I do have confidence the Olyroos were very well resourced by the FFA,” he said.
“Resourcing wasn’t an issue, I think they got outplayed and outclassed.
“But being well resourced equates to medals, that’s very clear.”
Funding is also an issue for bankrupt swimmer Nick D’Arcy but the controversial butterfly specialist has been given the all clear for London, as long as he qualifies at next month’s selection trials.
The AOC endorsed Swimming Australia’s decision on Tuesday to open the door for D’Arcy, who was kicked out of the 2008 team for assaulting former team-mate Simon Cowley.
Swimming Australia found D’Arcy did not bring himself or the sport into disrepute by filing for bankruptcy last December, which gets him out of around $800,000 in debts, including $180,000 in damages to Cowley.