There needs to be a change to the way that we fund sports, says Ian Chesterman
New Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) boss Ian Chesterman will look to secure more government funding to continue the country’s rise up the medal tables and retain talent in the lead-up to hosting the 2032 Games in Brisbane.
Chesterman was elected AOC president at its annual general meeting yesterday, replacing long-serving supremo John Coates, who stepped down after 32 years in charge of the governing body.
The Australian government committed A$257mn ($182mn) in the three-year Olympic cycle to the 2024 Paris Games. Chesterman said he would seek more to ensure the nation could remain competitive.
“We want to be successful in 2032. There needs to be a change to the way that we fund sports,” he told reporters in Sydney after defeating rival candidate Mark Stockwell for the AOC presidency in a landslide.
“The AOC is doing a lot of work in that space at the moment with our member sports to try and come up with a new platform which allows government to truly invest in us so that we’re successful in Paris, we’re successful in Cortina and Milano and we’re successful in LA and then onwards to 2032.”
Italy is hosting the next Winter Games in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, with Los Angeles to host the 2028 Summer Games.
Australia claimed 17 gold medals at Tokyo to match its record haul at the 2004 Athens Games and took a record four medals at the Beijing Winter Olympics in February.
Coates was relentless in demanding successive governments boost support for athletes and fought some bitter public battles with the national sports funding agency, the Australian Sports Commission (ASC), and its former chief John Wylie.
AOC Chief Executive Matt Carroll said the ASC was up for the funding “conversation” while the federal government had accepted the AOC’s recommendations.
“It doesn’t guarantee they (ASC) will like everything we say but that’s life,” he said.
Securing funding to retain and develop talent in women’s sport will be high on Chesterman’s agenda.
In recent years, professional pathways have opened for women in Australia’s major sports competitions, including the Australian Football League (AFL) and National Rugby League (NRL).
This could mean a stiffer challenge keeping athletes focussed on winning Olympic medals.
“We have to be able to say to young people don’t... have a dream just to pursue AFL or NRL. Let’s pursue a dream of Olympic sports,” Chesterman said. “And then of course, for those who are younger, to have a dream of 2032.”
Yesterday’s meeting was also addressed by IOC President Thomas Bach who told the gathering the war has created unique challenges for the Olympic movement.
“As long as the war is ongoing, we will have to live with this dilemma. But we also need to prepare ourselves for a day when peace will prevail. There will come a time when the world will need to rebuild bridges. When that moment comes, then we in the Olympic movement need to be ready to let the unifying power of sport unfold again,” Bach said.
BUSY DECADE
• Bidding for big events is part of Sport 2030, a government roadmap established in 2018 that recognises the broader economic and social implications of sport, which is already deeply embedded in Australia’s culture and identity. Hence, more than 30 major global sporting events are coming to Australia across the next 10 years
• In addition to the annual Australian Open tennis and Formula One, the country will host cricket’s men’s Twenty20 World Cup, Women’s Basketball World Cup and the UCI road cycling world championships this year.
• It will then jointly hold football’s Women’s World Cup with New Zealand in 2023, a British and Irish Lions rugby tour in 2025, Commonwealth Games in 2026, Netball World Cup in 2027 and Presidents Cup golf a year later.
• An expected announcement next month that it will also stage back-to-back men’s and women’s Rugby World Cups in 2027 and 2029 will further cement Australia’s status as a sporting powerhouse.
• According to government data, 14 million Australians participate in sport every year, millions attend live games and the sector generates about three percent of gross domestic product.
• It is big business, delivering A$83bn ($61bn) of combined economic, health and educational benefits annually, with a return on investment of A$7 for every dollar spent, Sport 2030 says.
John Coates ends 32 years as Australian Olympic boss
Sydney: Australian sport ushered in a new era yesterday when powerbroker John Coates stood down as president of the country’s Olympic Committee after 32 years at the helm.
Coates, 71, rose to prominence when he helped Sydney win its 2000 Games bid and is credited with shaping the Olympic movement globally in the decades since.
“In my 32 years as president, we’ve followed what has become known as the Bach mantra: ‘Change or be changed’,” he said during a gathering that took place to elect a new chief yesterday.
“Today, with a full heart, I thank you for giving me the chance to live mine.”
A congenital hip dislocation meant Coates was unlikely to become an elite sportsman - although he was a capable schoolboy rowing cox - but his love of sport saw him excel as an administrator. He twice masterminded successful Olympic bids - Sydney 2000 and Brisbane 2032 - and was known to be as competitive as the athletes he represented.
He courted scandal by revealing the Ugandan and Kenyan Olympic committees were offered A$48,000 ($33,900) before the 2000 Olympics host-city vote - but only if Sydney won. When the ballot was counted, Sydney beat Beijing by two votes, 45 to 43.
On the whole, though, the Olympics boss was widely respected for what he achieved for Australia.
Coates will remain vice-president of the International Olympic Committee until the 2024 Games in Paris and is still president of the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
