In a week where Swimming Australia has dominated the top of the podiums at the World Aquatics Championships, the organization has gotten more good news this week in the form of a share of AUD$20 million (USD$13.3 million) in funding being allocated to help Olympic and Paralympic athletes prepare for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The announcement of new money, which has been allocated by the Federal Government of Australia, comes one year out from the opening of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Of the AUD$2o million, a pool of AUD$15.223 million (USD$10.2 million) will be distributed via one-time grants to 32 eligible sports. The remaining AUD$4.833 million (USD$3.2 million) will be given in a competitive grant program via applications from eligible high-performances sports programs.
Recipients of Stream One Grants:
Archery Australia, Artistic Swimming Australia, Athletics Australia, AusCycling, Australian Sailing, Australian Taekwondo, Australian Weightlifting Federation, Badminton Australia, Basketball Australia, Boccia Australia, Combat Institute of Australia, Diving Australia, Equestrian Australia, Football Australia, Golf Australia, Gymnastics Australia, Hockey Australia, Judo Australia, Modern Pentathlon Australia, Paddle Australia, Paralympics Australia, Rowing Australia, Rugby Australia, Shooting Australia, Skate Australia, Sport Climbing Australia, Surfing Australia, Swimming Australia, Table Tennis Australia, Triathlon Australia, Volleyball Australia, and Water Polo Australia
All of Australia’s aquatic programs are recipients, including Artistic Swimming Australia, Diving Australia, and Water Polo Australia.
“We are enormously grateful for the Federal Government’s support of our sports and athletes as they look seek to qualify for Paris,” Australian Olympic Committee chief Ian Chesterman said. “Every Australian athlete who wants to represent our country in Paris has to travel to qualify.
“Travel costs are through the roof. So, this additional support from the Federal Government will help athletes pursue their dream of representing us all at the 2024 Olympics.
“We think an Australia with more Olympians is a better Australia. We know everyone on the team will inspire their clubs, their communities and our country. We now expect Australia again will have one of the five biggest teams next year.
“This new funding is vital. Paris is the first stop on the road to Brisbane and if we want home Games success that has to start now.”
Australia will host the 2032 Olympic Games in Brisbane, and the program is a direct result of Australia’s High Performance 2032+ Sport Strategy.
Australian, like most of the world, rely on federal government funding to support, to fund its Olympic and Paralympic sports programs.
Australia won 17 gold, 7 silver, and 22 bronze medals at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. The 17 gold medals matches Athens 2004 as the most that Australia has ever won. The country is one of only five countries to have sent athletes to every modern Summer Olympic Games (Great Britain, France, Greece, Switzerland).
Really only Greece and Australia have sent an official team to every summer Olympics. Google is our friend. Great Britain did combine with Northern Ireland in 1896. Australia did combine with NZ early last century too. So maybe only Greece officially.
https://www.topendsports.com/events/summer/countries/index.htm
How can Australia have sent an ‘official’ team in 1896 & 1900 when Australia wasn’t a nation until 1901?
Anyway the wording should be ‘these nations have had representatives in every games’ to remove semantics from any discussions.
Dean Boxall should get at least ten percent.
Rugby Australia & Football Australia should be able to look after themselves…
I notice tennis Australia is also not getting funding
Australia Open profit should have enough money to fund tennis year round
I think it helps that Brisbane is hosting in 2032 so probably setting up the athletes for that
Sadly I think the athletes will see very little direct increased financial help. If they were serious they would fund second and third ranked athletes that keep the top tier motivated and on their game. Too many of our athletes, would not be athletes, without the financial backing from their families.
See the Australia A swimming team in the USA at the moment spending $3000 each to be there. And they aren’t the only sports team having to pay to travel.
Yep, too much of this sort of stuff going on. This calibre of athlete absolutely needs to be funded to lighten the burden on their families. How much do you think it would be costing each coach and other team staff members to be over there? If Swimming Australia charged a coach for the privilege of going and supporting their athletes , how many takers do you think they would get?
Also remember, this age group of athlete has more than likely skipped all of the junior representative team stuff due to COVID, so if they didn’t fund a trip like the US tour, there goes more missed international experience and exposure to competition at the highest level, putting them… Read more »