Gold: Overview : SBS Insight

Overview

Australia spends big money building up elite athletes. But is the money well spent?

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Morale in Australia’s swimming team is at rock bottom, after a disappointing Olympic performance and new allegations about ill-discipline, juvenile pranks and disunity.

High profile swimmers speak out about the allegations, revealing that no one from Swimming Australia has spoken to them since the Olympics. And they claim they haven’t had a team psychologist since 2009.

The swimmers are joined by gymnasts, runners and other Olympians, who say that although big sums are going to their organisations, the money isn’t trickling down to them individually and they’re often forced to rely on their families for financial support. Their parents are selling family businesses and spending their savings. Many of them are living below the poverty line.

Australian taxpayers spent $588 million on this year’s Olympic Games and won a total of 35 medals. In stark contrast, Australian Paralympians fared much better, with a fraction of the financial backing.

Meanwhile, community sport clubs are crying poor, saying they can’t afford to support promising young talent. They believe more public dollars should come to them so they can inspire the next generation of athletes from the ground up.

Insight explores where sports funding goes in Australia and whether there is a better way to spend the money.

Producer: Sarah Bamford
Associate Producer: Kym Middleton
Researcher: Amanda Xiberras

Meet the Guests

Wayne Lomas

Wayne Lomas is the High Performance Manager for Swimming Australia. Swimming receives the most government funding compared to any other sport – $39 million between 2010-2014. The organisation is currently preparing for a review into the swimming team’s disappointing 2012 Olympic performance. Wayne says Swimming Australia cannot afford to pay elite swimmers a wage.

Dr James Connor

Dr James Connor is a senior lecturer with the University of New South Wales in Canberra and has focused on sport as one of his research areas. He is critical of the amount of public money invested in elite sports and in the Olympics. James says there’s no evidence that elite sporting events inspire people to get active. He says the reason sports participation aren’t higher is because the funding priorities are wrong – the majority is devoted to high performance at the expense of community sports.

Marayke Jonkers

Marayke Jonkers is a former Paralympic swimmer and paratriathlon competitor. She previously held the world record for the 100m butterfly and broke 60 Australian records. Marayke believes she would have benefited from more financial support. However, she feels she worked harder because the odds were against her. She founded Sporting Dreams, a charity aimed at supporting athletes with disabilities.

Melanie Schlanger

Melanie Schlanger was part of the Women’s 4x100m freestyle relay team which won the only Australian gold medal in the pool at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Despite strong performances over her swimming career, she says she has received little support from Swimming Australia until she qualified for the 2012 Games. Melanie says if her parents hadn’t spent $100,000 to get her to the London Games, Australia might not have won gold in the pool at all.

Steven Solomon

Steven Solomon is a Sydney teenager who made his Olympic debut at the London Games this year. He managed to make the finals of the 400m sprint – something no Australian has achieved in more than 20 years. Steven had never participated in athletics outside organised school sport until his talent was noticed just three years ago at Sydney’s affluent Cranbrook School. Steven credits his athletic success to the support of his family, coach, training partners and school.

Daniel Kowalski

Daniel Kowalski is a former Olympian and now heads the Australian Swimmers’ Association, which represents elite swimmers. Daniel says most Olympic swimmers’ income is below the poverty line, despite the millions of government and commercial dollars invested in Swimming Australia. Daniel says swimming has enough money but it is poorly managed.