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To most fans watching Australia’s Olympic athletes on the telly, it’s all about the sport. Elite athletes doing what they’re very good at.
Unfortunately for Australia, our athletes have underperformed at Rio. And the recriminations have already begun.
On Saturday morning and after a great early run, the Boomers lost their semi-final to Serbia with a woeful shooting percentage. Our swimmers and cyclists have generally underperformed.
There’s been talk of stage fright and athletes peaking too early.
The big wigs of Australia’s sports bodies want answers. But not from the athletes. No, the big question is – how have our sports bureaucracies performed?
It begs an important question. Who is most responsible for winning gold medals – the athletes, or officials who direct sports funding and determine strategies behind the scenes?
ASC Chairman John Wylie said before the Rio Games “You can’t keep standing still, we need to look at doing things differently to stay ahead of the competition.”
“I think there’s a really great unity of purpose and clarity in what we’re trying to achieve, and that’s to get Australian sport back on top.
“I think there’s a much greater level of accountability of spending what is essentially public money. The notion that you just get funding is not how the methodology works.
Wylie clearly feels a heavy responsibility to ensure the ASC is actively managing our national effort to collect Olympic medals. In the aftermath of the Rio games and according to The Age’s Sam Lane, Australian Sports Commission boss John Wylie is set to chair a nine-member ‘AIS Future Directions’ advisory panel.
The panel will consider the findings of a comprehensive review of the AIS by the Boston Consulting Group.
There is open warfare between the Australian Institute of Sport and the Australian Sports Commission over control our elite sports programs. After disappointing Olympics campaigns in Beijing and London, the ASC responded by implementing the Winning Edge program.
In a major upheaval, this saw funds previously allocated to the AIS controversially diverted to individual sports bodies such as Swimming and Cycling Australia. AOC president John Coates bristles at the ASC’s meddling, labelling it a “bloated bureaucracy”.
And then there is Chloe Esposito, Australia’s newest gold medal winner in the modern pentathlon.
Interviewed by Channel Seven, Chloe said that her aim in the event was “just to have fun”. Let’s not understate the huge commitment and talent Chloe drew on to win.
She was already a medal hopeful and received government support. But flying under the radar of the hype, managers and consultants who are feuding over such critical issues such as whether to refer to “our swim team” or just part of “the (national Olympic) team”, Chloe just got on with it and won.
It’s time Australian athletes were able to just get on with the business of competing and winning. They need proper support and funding. But it’s time for the rock star bureaucrats and the notion that they can manage their team’s way up the medal able to take a back seat.
Select good leaders who can guide our athletes. Athletes like Anna Meares and before her, Andrew Gaze. And keep it about the sport.