The federal government has announced more than half a billion dollars in funding to boost the sporting landscape ahead of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The $513 million package will be delivered by the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) over the next two years.
It is an increase over the last round of funding, which came in at $489 million.
The package includes funding for 68 sporting programs and a record $42.8 million to assist athletes with daily living and training expenses.
Also included is high-performance funding for Winter Olympians and Paralympians and $102.8 million for subsidised access to Australian Institute of Sport facilities.
Para athletes will also get a boost, with $54.9 million allocated for better classification, training environments, and coaching and support.
Federal sports minister Annika Wells said the government was “laser focused on what sport does from playground to podium”.
“Athletes do a lot for our country. It’s not just the health benefits, it’s not just the social cohesion, it’s not just the community building that keeps us all together,” she said.
Federal sports minister Annika Wells says the government is “laser focused” on sport from “playground to podium”. (ABC News: Ian Cutmore)
“Athletes light us all up, give us something to talk about … sport makes you want to hug strangers.
“You can’t put a price on that, but with all the budget constraints, we’ve put it at $513 million for the next two years to try and give them everything we can to make sure that we’re successful in Glasgow in a month, in LA 2028, in the French Alps in 2030, and of course here in Brisbane 2032.”
Paralympics Australia welcomed the announcement, saying the funding would provide “critical certainty” ahead of big events.
President Grant Mizens said the government’s support would bring Paralympic sport into reach for more athletes.
“Maintaining this historic investment will continue to reduce longstanding barriers and inequities across the system while strengthening pathways for the next generation of Paralympians,” Mr Mizens said.
Athlete pay a point of tension
Athlete pay has been under the spotlight, with IOC chief Kirsty Coventry receiving public backlash last month over comments she made arguing Olympic athletes should not be paid prize money.
“I don’t believe in paying athletes. I come from a small country, I came from a sport that doesn’t necessarily pay athletes very well and I still don’t think we should be paying athletes at the Olympic Games,” she said in an interview.
Ms Coventry later clarified she had been talking about prize money, but the statement sparked debate over financial compensation for elite athletes.
Olympic swimmer and gold medallist Kyle Chalmers last month said the sport was reaching a “tipping point” in terms of athlete pay.
“It’s such a hard sport … you make a lot of very hard decisions and sacrifices for what I feel is very little reward. I really hope our governing bodies can actually start to create change,” he told reporters at the Australian Swimming Trials earlier this month.
“It’s very easy for a lot of us swimmers to voice our concerns but nothing seems to change and there’s millions of dollars left in bank accounts [of] people using our image and our performances that we don’t reap rewards of, which is unfortunate.
“It’s not on Australian taxpayers to cover that, I’m not expecting any of that. I’m [expecting it of] the organisations that are generating so much money out of our races.”
One of Australia’s most recent Olympic gold medallists, moguls skier Cooper Woods said gold medals “open doors” but still do not give direct financial support.
“We’re not professional athletes, in that sense. We’re not signed on with the Sydney Roosters or anything like that,” he said.
“I had teammates that went to these last Olympics that were still paying. They would have paid almost six figures to go to the Games that year.“
Cooper Woods says some of his teammates paid six-figure sums to attend the last Winter Olympic Games. (ABC News)
He said children with a passion for an Olympic sport might choose to pursue rugby league instead due to the bigger paychecks.
“We do it not for the money and we’ve been doing that our entire life,” he said.
“But funding like we’ve just received … that creates opportunities for us Australians to go out there, be the underdog, beat everyone, and that inspires the next.”
