With the London 2012 Olympics finally upon us, it’s a pertinent time to analyse the current state of Australian sport.
I am predicting that Australia will win less than 10 gold medals in London. This would represent our worse result since Atlanta in 1996.
In terms of other sports, some Olympic and some not, our current performances are bringing into question the position sport holds in current Australian society.
Long known as a country that punches above its weight in sport, given its population, Australia is fast becoming just one of the pack.
For the purposes of this article, I have concentrated on those sports that are arguably part of our national psyche. Due to that criteria and the need to draw a line somewhere, I have decided to leave out sports such as boxing, motorsport and cycling.
I have focused on Australia’s current world ranking in a range of sports, along with our recent performances in world championships or similar.
Basketball
At one stage basketball was going to take over the world. In the days of Michael Jordan, basketball enjoyed a rapid rise in Australia to the point where it was shown live on prime-time television and stadiums were regularly sold out.
The NBL is now a shadow of its former self and yet another team, Gold Coast Blaze, recently folded. The current Australian mens team is ranked ninth and the womens team second.
The men are not expected to challenge for a medal in London and the women should make the final, where they will again probably face the might of the USA.
Cricket
Many people believe the captaincy of the Australian cricket team is the second-highest profile job in the country behind the Prime Minister. Indeed three previous captains – Border, Taylor and Waugh – have won Australian of the Year.
In 2012, the position of the national cricket side in our thoughts has never been lower. Many are disillusioned with the game, particularly older fans, who don’t understand the modern obsession with Twenty20.
The one-day side is ranked first, but recently lost a series 4-0 to England. The Test side is ranked second, yet the Test rankings are favoured to countries who play more games.
In Twenty20 we are ranked sixth. If this form is the future of the game, then clearly we have more work to do to become competitive.
Golf
Hard-core fans of golf have only just recovered from Adam Scott throwing away a four-shot lead in the recent British Open. However, it did highlight again the inability of an Australian golfer to win a big tournament.
The last major winner was Geoff Ogilvy in 2006 and before that it was Steve Elkington in 1995. In mens golf, we have four players in the top 50 (Scott, Day, Senden, Ogilvy) and eight in the top 100.
Carrie Webb is the only Australian woman in the top 50. Given the amount of land we have in this country, the number of golf courses, the participation rate of the game and the weather, our performances in golf internationally are only average at best.
Netball
Netball is the highest participation sport for women in Australia and the national side has enjoyed much success over the years. Australia is the current world champions, however the national competition was recently won by a New Zealand club side. It is concerning that our fiercest rival in netball is a country of only 4 million people.
Rugby Union
After the Queensland Reds Super Rugby triumph of 2011, things were looking up for this code. Unfortunately, none of the five Australian teams could make the semi-finals of this year’s competition.
Australia made the semi finals of the 2011 World Cup, but the balance between international success and strong local-team performances still is not marrying up.
Rugby League
The NRL is acknowledged as the best rugby-league competition in the world and the annual State of Origin series presents the best three games played anywhere each year.
That said, the current world champions are New Zealand. The sport suffers from the fact that international competition isn’t strong – all the more reason for Australia to be supremely dominant.
Football
The A-League is an improved competition and is now attracting some quality overseas players. Qualification for recent World Cups has lifted the profile of the game in Australia but the game comes well behind the other football codes in terms of attracting young talent.
Australia is ranked 23rd, which is very good given our population and participation rate compared with other soccer playing nations, of which there are many. Not securing the hosting rights to future World Cups has hurt the code in Australia – the fallout from which is yet to be fully understood.
Tennis
The most disappointing sport in terms of recent performances has been tennis. Australia has a rich and enviable history in this sport, but currently we are barely a factor.
As a nation we are currently ranked 20th and therefore don’t even qualify for the world group of Davis Cup in the mens game.
The fact that the Australian Open is one of the four majors in tennis is ironic, considering no Australian man or woman has won their home tournament for over 35 years.
We have only one player in each of the top 50s for mens and womens tennis (Tomic and Stosur). Indeed most Australians would not have heard of our third-highest ranked male player – Marinko Matosevic.
Olympics
The past three Olympics has seen Australia hold its own in terms of medals against some of the larger populated countries in the world. I predict the London Olympics will produce a post-Montreal (1976) enquiry into our performance, where we won only 5 medals in total and no gold.
Questions have already been raised regarding funding to some sports and selection criteria in others. Australia is predicted to finish seventh on the medal table. But even that looks a stretch.
In many ways sport has defined us as Australians over the years. Our ability to triumph over opposition that have every right to defeat us has made us the envy of many a country.
But times are changing.
Sport, it seems, just doesn’t mean as much to the average Australian as it used to. Maybe there is too much coverage of it now and we are bored. Maybe sport is too corporate now and people feel they can’t relate to it. Whatever it is we need to get out juices flowing again.
Let’s hope the London Olympics can re-invigorate something in all of us.
robstewart23
Roar Rookie
The point swampy is to start debate and discussion. Keep the personal jibes to yourself though. Thanks for your contribution - you make a good point.
robstewart23
Roar Rookie
Why? Just being honest and presenting some numbers. Like other aspects of our society, sport should be open to honest debate about results. Unfortunately such critique is often viewed as pessimism. I am all for being positive, but sometimes the facts don't lie.
robstewart23
Roar Rookie
Thanks. I said less than 10 golds and we won seven. Given our population and GDP that's still pretty good. Seems everyone else has got better.
robstewart23
Roar Rookie
My response after seven gold medals - happy with my predictions. I think the last paragraph of my article held pretty true. The in-fighting over funding etc has already began, as has some investigations into performances.
David Malone
Guest
The National Lottery has been a huge boost to us in the UK in terms of sport progression. If it wasn't for that we would definitely have still been in our slumber. A big help was the Commonwealth games in Manchester which give people in the north more facilities; like a velodrome etc. If they build these things, then people don't have to travel very far, with us being such a small nation.
Neil
Guest
The bare facts are that countries like Great Britain looked at how Australia was performing beyond their actual population figures and realised as Sean above said: That it was down to making sports more professional. GB has now used large amounts of money from its National Lottery. Free money in a way as its just a cut of what the Poms have spent to win money for themselves. And with that money we can see what they can do. Face it, the Poms once roused from their slumber have shown why their country is called GREAT BRITAIN.
Sean
Guest
Quite simply, Australia took a professional attitude to largely amateur sports and now everybody else is catching up. Cricket and RU were both pretty much amateur, the former in effect, the latter, literally till very recently. The institutes of sport did similar to other sports. Now everybody has them. Further, when it comes to the Olympics. Australia, in recent history, has excelled at swimming which is massively over represented. Its why all the great multimedal winners are swimmers, Phelps, Thorpe, Spitz, Jones etc. The last two games Aus has been dependent on their multimedallers, Thorpe, Hackett, Jones... and they aren't who they were. Australians are going to have to get used to the fact they led the way in professionalisation of amateur sports. The problem is, everybody is now and the sporting scene is just so much more competitive. Unless Australia finds another jump on the rest, it will now just about over perform. At this Olympics, Australia has only been good at the bronze medal sports.
k77sujith
Guest
Well, it hasn't been the best possible start for the nation in London so far and your prediction has come true, so kudos on that.
Joe
Guest
Channel Nine's coverage is embarassing. They are obsessed with Australian athletes and keep switching from one event to the next and back just to show Australians. Terrible coverage. Would have loved to watch the gymnastics, but they only quickly show the Australians and then go back to boring swimming. This country is so obsessed with patriotism.. bahh, I would just love to see the best in the sport, I couldn't give a rats what nationality they are.
lolly
Guest
Maybe it just means - as far as the Olympics go - that countries with far bigger populations pump more money into sport and have a much bigger pool to draw from? There are an awful lot of sports in the world, you can't be great at all of them. We have at least 2 codes of footie that 1) are growing 2) draw many talented athletes from other sports due to the chance of earning real money and 3) are irrelevant on the world stage. Surely that's at least part of the problem, at least on the male side of sport?
JH
Guest
I'd be interested to see the OPs response IF Australia do really well.
Marcus Taylor
Roar Rookie
I would hate to run into you on a bad day robstewart23
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
I'm not qualified to offer opinions on any sports - other than football - since I haven't got adequate interest in, or background information relating to, those other sports. But, let's deconstruct the 4 points the author makes re: AUS football: 1. The A-League is an improved competition and is now attracting some quality overseas players. Agree 2. Qualification for recent World Cups has lifted the profile of the game in Australia but the game comes well behind the other football codes in terms of attracting young talent. Ridiculous comment. Football has the highest participation numbers in Australia - at every age level - & the best football talent, who want to proceed with a career in football, are given every opportunity do so. Does Football recruit the best young talent who can swim fast? NO Does Football recruit the best young talent who can catch a ball, throw a ball into a hoop, hit a ball with a bat/racquet, hold the ball in the hands whilst barging into opponents? NO Does this impact the quality of professional footballer produced by AUS? NO. Why? Because these skills are NOT required for playing football. 3. Australia is ranked 23rd, which is very good given our population and participation rate compared with other soccer playing nations, of which there are many. Agree 4. Not securing the hosting rights to future World Cups has hurt the code in Australia – the fallout from which is yet to be fully understood. A nonsensical statement unless the author clearly defines the criteria/benchmarks he used to reach the conclusion the code has been hurt by failure to secure the WC2022 hosting rights.
Swampy
Guest
Don't know why that first post appeared on this thread -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download The Roar's iPhone App in the App Store here.
Rabbitz
Roar Guru
I just wandered down to the local sports fields. The kids are running, jumping, throwing, laughing. showing nerves, crying and celebrating. The mums and dads are putting in the long hours and hard yards to make it happen. From where I stood it looked like sports in Australia were moving along as they always had. Maybe some of the "elite" aren't up to it or are whining too much but the kids are still doing it because it is fun.
Swampy
Guest
What is the point of this summary? No insight, vague opinion and even less reasoning. Here's a theory. For 2 decades AFL, NRL and Cricket dropped the ball so to speak. This allowed other less prominent sports to grab some limelight. None more spectacularly than basketball. Come the 2000's these three primary Australian sports got themselves together, corporatized and started dominating media, sponsorship and the national psyche. Now the 3 majors dangle the biggest carrots and take the majority of the best athletes, best medicos, best facilities. The result is other sports have suffered and the Olympic medal count is a function of that. -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download The Roar's iPhone App in the App Store here.
Swampy
Guest
Hawks are unbelievably white hot. Will they keep this going or are they peaking too early like Collingwood last year? -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download The Roar's iPhone App in the App Store here.