The teams triathlon at the recent Tokyo Olympics capped a dismal period for Australian triathlon.
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Many [athletes] slog their guts out often funding their dreams from their own pockets while millions of taxpayer dollars intended for them are spent elsewhere.
Once a world powerhouse, the Australians finished ninth in the teams event. Our best finisher across the three races at the Olympics was Jake Birtwhistle, who managed 16th in the men's event, Newcastle's Aaron Royle finished 26th while Jaz Hedgeland and Ashleigh Gentle were so far behind in the women's race that they weren't even allowed to ride into transition and start the run.
Emma Jeffcoat, who finished 26th, spoke after the race of her heartbreak at seeing Hedgeland and Gentle sitting on the side of the road in tears. The athletes gave their all in incredibly tough fields under brutal conditions and we were the only nation to qualify a full complement of three men and three women.
However, serious questions have to be asked. Triathlon Australia has a high performance program, believe it or not. With an annual budget of about $6.5 million, roughly two-thirds of Triathlon Australia's revenue is in the form of government grants and about $3.5 million of that is spent on the so-called high performance program each year. This is tiny compared to what the NRL and AFL clubs spend. And do you think Triathlon Australia draws juicy cheques in favour of its elite athletes? Unlikely.
Perusing their annual reports and website it's more likely that a large chunk of the $3.5 million is soaked up by the high performance staff which numbers about 15. Triathlon Australia only pays two of its staff more than $150,000 and another three earn more than $100,000.
If we take a guess that the CEO is one of those top earners and another executive is the other, then it's more likely that high performance staff are earning good middle incomes. Throw in superannuation, insurance, office equipment and the like and you can see how $3.5 million a year across 15 staff can be soaked up.
So are we getting good value for money for that $3.5 million of taxpayer funds? I don't believe so.
Triathlon Australia, like so many sporting bodies, is dependent on taxpayer funds and then squanders it on bureaucracy. This is nothing new. In fact we in Australia invented it.
It's 40 years since the opening of the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra. Created as a response to the dismal 1976 Olympics where we didn't win a single gold medal, the AIS provided world-class facilities and sports science to Australia's budding athletes.
There, you could find men and women wearing neat polo shirts peering into microscopes, filming athletes underwater and attaching all sorts of tubes and apparatus to runners and rowers. Eventually results across a number of sports improved. Then each of the states established their own sporting institutes and academies.
At the same time, our universities started offering degrees in exercise science, nutrition and the like and these graduates needed jobs. Many found them at these various academies and national sporting bodies and their high performance programs.
After Sydney was awarded the 2000 Games in 1993, sports funding surged and many made the mistake in believing that simply spending more resulted in our record medal hauls at Sydney and Athens.
And because we'd spent so much on building sporting bureaucracies and given little to the athletes themselves, the bureaucrats believed they were an integral part of the success. Forget the genetics and drive of the athlete coupled with the wisdom and guidance of a great coach.
We should have sympathy for some of our great athletes.
Many slog their guts out often funding their dreams from their own pockets while millions of taxpayer dollars intended for them are spent elsewhere.
Just imagine what Triathlon Australia could do with that $3.5 million? Imagine a series of races across the Australian summer where the athletes raced for $2 million in prizemoney? Imagine a funding scheme where the athletes could direct, say, $50,000 to pay for their coach? Imagine if we did something similar in swimming, athletics, track cycling and other sports?
The bureaucrats mightn't be happy. There'd be less of them for a start.
But Australian sports men and women could compete tooth and nail here, earn some decent cash and pay for quality coaching.
Maybe then we could find the next Emma Snowsill or Michellie Jones or a Betty Cuthbert or a Marjorie Jackson.
Stephen Ryan is a Newcastle barrister and amateur triathlete
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