11.12.2009

Athletics Australia response to the Crawford Report

Athletics Australia President Rob Fildes OAM details the sport's response to the recently-released Crawford Report.

Summary:

•    Supports debate on national policy
•    Calls for funding to be increased for Olympic sports
•    Agrees sports must build capacity
•    Athletics is a foundation sport for all sports and the national health agenda
•    Argues athletics and other Olympic sports DO inspire a nation
•    Recognises Crawford’s “whole of sport” approach is in line with current AA policy

Australia needs a national sports policy or vision:

The Crawford Report asks many questions and definitely provides a comprehensive look at the current status of Australian sport. The Report has sparked considerable debate to establish a national sports policy and assist in the prioritisation of where the funding is allocated. We welcome this debate; it is healthy, and we recognise the importance of defining a policy framework to support national sports funding and administration.

Australia now has the opportunity to develop a sports system that is modern, world class and is inclusive and accessible. One of which Australia can be truly proud.

Funding shortfalls must be addressed:

Athletics Australia supports and agrees with the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) in its request for additional funding for Australian Olympic sports.

Athletics Australia needs additional funding. Everywhere we turn in the running and organisation of our sport we are unable to carry out our objectives and initiatives to the extent we would like because we simply cannot afford to.

There is no doubt in our minds that the failure to adequately fund Olympic Sports will see a decline in medals achieved at future Olympic Games, world championships, Paralympic Games and Commonwealth Games. This will impact upon Australia’s national image and it can be argued it could have a significant effect on Australia’s reputation as an innovative leader in international sport. It will also impact on awareness and participation at all levels in these sports.

What price our children’s health!
 
The key message here is that facilities are important for grassroots and community activities as well as the professional sports, places where Australian kids can participate in sport and emulate their heroes whilst remaining active and healthy.
 
The spiritual home of Athletics in Victoria, Melbourne’s Olympic Park, where John Landy famously stopped mid-race to help the fallen Ron Clarke, holds a prominent place in Australian sport. It is a heritage site in what is perhaps the best sports precinct in the world. Athletics is being moved to Albert Park at the request of the Victorian Government. The new athletics and Victorian Institute of Sport Centre is going to be very good with a $50 million Victorian Government commitment. 

Athletics Australia and Athletics Victoria are requesting a further $15 million from the Federal Government to build a dedicated ‘Athletics House’ building at Albert Park.  This will give athletics its own multipurpose building in the interests of community health and well being through athletics for future generations.
 
The professional sports of soccer and rugby will be housed in a new stadium at Olympic Park at a cost of $276 million. A reasonable current observation of much larger money and the best geographical position going to professional sport compared to an Olympic sport.

We have a dearth of resources for our sport at grassroots and community level that are available to the organisations that run our community participation sport.  Our volunteer base needs support urgently.

Some of the issues here are the provision of adequate coaching at all levels of the sport, ensuring that we maintain and grow our diminishing volunteer base, that we have adequate facilities available, that our programs remain relevant and accessible to the younger generation. Partnership with all levels of Government plays a critical role in addressing these issues, and it is our strong belief that there is genuine community benefit as a result. 

Capacity building must be a priority:

As outlined in our initial submission, we believe Olympic and other semi-professional sports must be given greater opportunities to independently build their capacity. This will require discussion around the freeing up of some of the rights currently held by the peak bodies and the necessary seed funding to commence programs/events that will enable sports to build capacity.

Why support athletics?

Athletics: a foundation sport for all sports and our nation’s health agenda:

Athletics Australia and its eight member associations; Queensland Athletics, Northern Territory Athletics, Athletics South Australia, Athletics New South Wales, Athletics Tasmania, Athletics Victoria, Athletics Western Australia and Australian Capital Territory Athletics are in a strong position to contribute to Governments’ preventative health strategies including every Australian child learning to run, jump and throw and having the opportunity to develop the necessary skills to participate in sport – all sport.

We offer the services of our many thousands of skilled members in assisting in the implementation of these health strategies.

We agree that physical education must be a core element in the curriculum of all Australian schools, with every child having the opportunity to participate in daily physical activity.

Athletics as the foundation of all sports can play a much larger role in Australian health objectives through schools, Little Athletics, junior and senior athletics, the fun run industry and the masters movement. 

Our existing Indigenous and athletes with a disability programs can also be increased considerably and we believe provide incremental health benefits to those sectors of the Australian community.  We are indeed a genuine ‘cradle to grave’ participation sport.

In addition, athletics is one of the few sports in which Australians of all shapes and sizes can compete – from the burly throwers weighing 120kg+ to our sub 50kg marathon runners.

Olympic sports play a positive role:

We are concerned that athletics as a large participation sport is often overlooked in favour of the professional sports with their large gate receipts, sponsorship and broadcast rights. We simply cannot compete on a financial basis with the professional sports of Australia, yet we are the original Olympic sport – in fact, most would argue the original sport – full stop. 

At the Beijing Olympics an estimated 500 million people watched Steve Hooker win gold in the pole vault. This is an incredible number of people who were given exposure to Australia through one of our very best athletes. We were also successful in Beijing with Sally McLellan winning silver in the women’s 100m hurdles and Jared Tallent winning silver in the 50km walk and bronze in the 20km walk. It is estimated that over 300 million Chinese alone watched these events. With our closer ties to China in commerce and trade and our social and cultural connections to Asia growing, Australia is becoming more a part of Asia. Surely this exposure through sport is very good for our country.

It must be recognised that Australian track and field athletes compete against 213 nations, the largest of any number, in any sport, at world championships and Olympic Games. It is a reasonable argument that athletics is the most competitive and difficult sport in which to win medals. 

At the recent world championships in Berlin, athletics won four medals; gold to Steve Hooker in the men’s pole vault, gold to Dani Samuels in the women’s discus throw, bronze to Mitchell Watt in the men’s long jump and bronze to the men’s 4x400m relay team. This was Australia’s best ever performance at a world championships since their inception in 1983 and Australia is currently ranked 10th in world athletics. We must continue to create opportunities for young Australians who are the best in Australia in their individual disciplines.

The Olympic Games, IAAF word championships, Commonwealth and Paralympic Games are the pinnacle of an athlete’s career. These ‘world’ events are of paramount importance in our planning and urgently require additional funding to better support the administration, athletes and coaches.

Olympic sports: inspiring a nation:

The initial claim by the Crawford Report that the Olympics do not inspire any noticeable increase in participation numbers is in our view a complete fallacy. Grassroots swimming, athletics, gymnastics, cycling and fitness clubs, as examples, are inundated with new members following Olympic success.

We agree that sporting success in “Aussie rules and cricket”, for example, does rank highly with many, many Australians. However, as a truly global sport athletics offers the wonderful experience of competing at major international championships such as the Olympic Games, world championships, Paralympic Games and Commonwealth Games.

As our Federal Minister for Trade, Mr Simon Crean, recently said, "Australia’s prowess in sport is a fundamental part of the Australian brand. Sport is a huge industry which we should be exporting." We agree with Mr Crean that sport is one of the areas where Australia is outstanding. As a young and small population country surely this can only be a positive for our nation.

Athletics: inspiring a nation:

During the 2009 Berlin world championships over 100 million people in Europe alone watched Steve Hooker’s performance on television and online. This was a young Australian displaying some of sports finest attributes. As Prime Minister Rudd said recently: “I can’t go past our Olympic and world champion pole vaulter Steve Hooker.  The courage displayed in his world championship victory is the stuff of Aussie sporting legend.”

Possibly the greatest sporting performance for Australians was the victory of Catherine Freeman in the women’s 400m at the Sydney Olympics. This defining moment in Australian sporting history added to the confidence of our nation and our Indigenous communities throughout the country.

Freeman and Hooker are not alone. Before them, names such as Flack, Strickland, Landy, Jackson, Cuthbert, Elliot, Clarke, Boyle, De Castella and Flintoff-King have all forged a place in Australian sporting history through their inspirational deeds.

Athletics Australia passionately believes that the performance of our great athletes is a great inspiration to our nation.

Governance and innovation:

Athletics Australia is already implementing many of the recommendations of the Crawford Report particularly in regard to the structure and governance of our sport as part of its own strategies to grow the sport.

We are also working hard to innovate, commercialise and reshape the shop window for our sport. We recognise this as our responsibility – we are the custodians of the sport. An example of this is the recent Australia v England 20/20 style street athletics meet, which was recently held in Newcastle, England.

As the foundation sport of every sport, Athletics Australia currently embraces a whole of sport philosophy; walking, running, jumping and throwing from five to 85 and beyond.


We look forward to being a strong participant in the debate regarding the future of Australian sport.

Rob H Fildes OAM
President
Athletics Australia