Graphs:
[infogram id=”1943e721-9019-4247-9b32-8938c1302db0″] [infogram id=”02cfd71f-7ad9-4580-bb8e-98eb9be0c111″] [infogram id=”b46b36c6-5867-4b0f-ad92-7fa339a84b00″]Investment into Australian Sport
Due to the Olympic team’s recent performance in Rio and how their results didn’t meet expectations, the Australian Sports Commission wants more funding and support for Australian Athletes.
In Rio, Australia came in tenth position on the Olympic medal tally. Overall they received eight gold medals, eleven silver and ten bronze. This totalled twenty-nine medals putting them in tenth position. Countries such as the United States of America, Great Britain, People’s Republic of China, the Russian Federation, Germany, Japan, France, Republic of Korea and even Italy all came ahead of Australia.
“The UK this year will invest around 60 per cent more than Australia in high-performance sport,” said ASC chairman John Wylie.
In the 2012 London Olympics Australia came in eighth position, however in the 2008 Beijing Olympics they came in sixth position and in 2004 Australia ranked fourth in the overall medal tally. Australia has only come top five, four times in the Olympic Games History.
The top six Olympic Sports that Australians over the age of 6 years old participate in are Swimming which comes in ranked number one. The others ranked in order of most popular to least popular are Cycling, Soccer, Basketball, Tennis and Athletics.
It is shown that Swimming had the most money invested into it in 2015 and 2016 with a total of $11,191,000. It is the most popular Sport in Australia and has consistently been very successful over the years. It has been a major contributor in our medal tally in the Olympic games.
This year the swim team won three gold medals, four silver and three bronze. Overall contributing ten medals to Australia’s medal count
In Australia we have a strategy known as the “Winning Edge Strategy” where more money is invested in those Sports that are getting results. It puts more focus on those successful Sports. The most successful Sport is Swimming which has traditionally been the most successful sport for the last few years.
This strategy was launched in 2012 and the strategy is expected to run until 2022. It is a game plan for moving from world class to the worlds best.
Before this strategy was implemented, Australia tallied 35 medals in London’s 2012 Olympics. This year they were short six medals off this tally. They won seven gold, sixteen silver and twelve bronze. The Swim Team contributed in total 10 medals. This has shown that there has not been much of an improvement. Even though there has not been much improvement, it is a ten-year plan and the results are expected to improve.
However, in 2008 at the Beijing Olympics before the Winning Edge strategy, Australia scored 46 medals on the medal tally.
There is a lot of money invested into high performance athletes. However, the top five sports receiving the most money are Swimming, Athletics, Rowing, Sailing and Hockey.
“We need funding to help athletes at a younger age to be able to afford to compete at an international level, playing a sport is very expensive and it is what turns off our young kids and their parents,” said Terry Stone, a Professional High Development Tennis Coach.
However, the sports that have received the most money in 2015 and 2016 are Basketball, Gym, Tennis, Hockey and Swimming.
The common denominator in all these results are Swimming, receiving the most amount of money to help reach it’s success.
