Have we failed our athletes, or have they failed us?

How a small country punches above it weight? an anlayis of it results found Australian athletes performed second worst to Brazil if you take into account GDP, population etc http://www.cityam.com/sport/brits-punched-above-weight .

I don't think people are really worried, though are they? Only in a pantomime way.

A great Country like Australia, Why are all Australians bad sportsmen, as one of your comments say Who cares whar other countries think of Australia Be proud to be Australian

As reflected by Channel 9's appalling coverage, Aussies have always been very parochial about sport. Banging on and on about how a small country punches above it's weight etc. News flash - Rugby, cricket, swimming and rowing might be big sports in North Shore Private School Ra Ra land in Australia, but elsewhere in the world they mean very little to a large proportion of the population, the exception possibly being cricket. Australia has used the myth of the sporting nation to define itself, simply because internationally it has no other claim to fame. But even this myth has been based on a falsehood, on the wider sporting stage where 'smashing the Poms or the Kiwis or the Saffers', is not only not important but actually completely irrelevant, Australia are not viewed as a sporting power in any sense. Move on get some real culture, stop selling your country to the Chinese and the Arabs and build a real identity rather than one based on chanting Oi Oi Oi with a bottle of beer in your hand and an ill defined grudge against the Poms. Someone posted earlier that you should all cheer up because the sun always shines, the beer is great and so are the women, good for you but maybe just maybe that arrogant smugness is the reason that the myth is starting to fade.

Why does everyone think that Australian athletes struggle for money? Read the Sydney Morning Herald Article about the $100 million dollar cash reserves the AOC have. This is INVESTED cash. Each year the federal Govt. puts around $170 million extra into the kitty. in the last 4 years (according to the Financial Review). Australia threw $568 million at Olympic athletes. In the same period the UK put 260 million pounds into similar sports programs. To match Australia they would have had to have spent @ 360 million pounds. Considering the UK team has over 500 members to Australias 410, Australia invests far more per athlete than the UK does. Also the size of the country is far less relevant than the wealth of the country, think infrastructure. Indonesia is a 'larger' country than Australia but where are the training facilities? Now try to think of any Australian town without a pool, gym, athletics field, footy fields and access to sports training and equipment. Australia has, roughly the 12th largest global economy, it has the time and money to scout for, identify and train promising juniors. Every major sport has en extensive junior and senior infrastrucure available to all with ability. Look at the top 10 in the olympic medal tally and try to spot a poor nation.

Seems the old 'whinging Poms ' thing has come full circle. Quick to bag other nations when Oz is doing well a little bit of humble pie may have led to more sympathetic press when we can't buy a gold medal. Karma is a bitch.

Calm down, so you're having a few bad years in sport, so what. Your economy isn"t great but there isn"t one country doing well in this economic climate - look at Italy, France, England and even Germany. As for complaining about a foreign born PM, Australia is a nation of immigrants - it's your strength.

Exactly ,China has 60x your population yet only 3x your total medal haul ( to date) ! Australia's recent sporting history has been so phenomenal that maybe you've simply set the bar too high - this time you seem to think its a national disaster because, so far , you've 'only' won once , got TWELVE seconds and 7 third places out of 205 competing countries. Chill out, everyone knows Aussies are one of the most sporting nations on earth.

The total medal haul is actually pretty good. Anyway, personally I don't give a damn whether we finish 4th in the medal tally, or 40th. As a few posters have mentioned already, the athletes get to keep the medals, they are playing for themselves (unless you're North Korean, in which case the state will take your medals, melt them down and salvage what precious metals they can, and sell it to feed the families of the politburo). Honestly people, it means nothing. If people are genuinely worried about Australia ending up with one gold, then we need some serious counselling to work out what's truly important and what's not.

I think he is saying it's not the end of the world that we missed out on a couple of gold medals...considering everything...and since our most popular sport is not even international or even relevant to the rest of the world.

Counterpoint: Our economy is chugging along nicely and we have weathered the GFC better than anywhere else in the world, the mining boom is going nowhere for the time being. Calling the current government 'dictatoral' is pure hyperbolic rubbish, who cares where someone is born? how does that affect their performance in parliment. If you want to blame anyone over the current state of affairs, blame your own baby boomer generation. The last thing we need is 'God' helping us, we need to move past rediculous superstition like that. Australia is a great place to live, unemployment is low, the beaches are great, the beer is great the woman are great, the sun is always shining and the air is clean. Cheer up matey.

Believe it or not the Olympics are about National prestige and to get that medals are a must.. Australia used to be a great nation currently they are no better than banana republics. Us Poms admired you for your guts and persistence now most of you have fallen victim to the tree hugging socialists. Most of the UK's gold's came from private schools where sports facilities are not only provided but the pupils are ENCOURAGED to participate in competition. This is an anathema to the socialists who prefer there well rounded (and then some) citizens to waddle along to protest and equality meetings. Where's your National pride gone?

The fact is that we don't spend money on those other things not because we spend it on funding sport but because we prefer to spend it on ourselves and our top tier consumer lifestyle., BMW's, Iphones, HD Tv's and consumer gadgets. How if we can't agree to spend a certain amount on sport which should unite us can we ever agree to spend on things that divide us. Look at all the hooha over carbon taxes, mining taxes, tax cuts and balanced budgets, not to mention compensation packages etc. The minimal amount of money we spend on international sport will simply end up going into pokies new cars and clothes, not on education and health. International sport and the olympics in particular symbolise our united national effort and should engender the same sort of unity that might motivate and transfer into other national projects.

Kazakhstan - 5 Golds, 0 Silver, 0 Bronze. Borat might treat himself to a new mankini following this epic success, as a small nation proves that winners are grinners.

Hi Rabbitz, Its not that life is getting me down. I am only stating the truth. Can you explain why morale is so low and our Olympic team is doing so badly? The truth is Australia has become the laughing stock of the world. Hiding your head in the sand does not make it not so. When the resource boom is over - and it will end, what are we going to sell so you can keep wearing your made in China shoes.

If the rugby codes are to blame for sucking our young talent away from olympic sports as mention , the same financial carrots are offered in England , USA , Canada where sports pay thousands of dollars to play there chosen sports and yet these teams are successful on the podium , In my opinion it has nothing to do with our professional codes draining our talent , the same players that play for the codes do not have the natural shape or genetics for swimming , tennis etc, we have had paid athletes for decades and still punched above our weight , In these olympics I believe we were outclassed in skills and unlike the british didn't pour the same money into the campaign..our coaches are also looking overseas for work as they aren't paid the money on offer elsewear To look at the professional codes and lay the blame or partial blame at there feet is putting our heads in the sand

Actually I don't believe a lot of commenters and commentators have considered that - too much they shoulda won, rather than they had a go.

You don't think that almost everyone has considered that?

Interestingly one of the swimmers (can't remember who - these young wet things begin to look so similar) said that "the team had set a high standard, the rest the world just set a higher one". I guess it sums up the results, and I think they believe they tried their best but, as you say, maybe they just weren't good enough on the day?