Australian Olympic Committee President Looks for Sports to Embrace Reforms or Expect to Lose Funding

Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) president John Coates has revealed sporting managers need to catch up with athletes in the race for excellence or face losing a part of their funding.

In the wake of recent sporting scandals, major Olympic sports have been warned they risk losing one-fifth of their funding if they don’t meet new governance standards.

The Australian Sports Commission (ASC) says swimming, cycling, athletics, sailing, rowing, hockey and basketball will be the first sports to face new governance standards because they get the most government funding.

“The ASC believes that the Australian public has the right to expect that sports receiving significant taxpayer funding will be well run,” ASC chairman John Wylie said in a statement on Tuesday.

AOC president Coates said the approach was overdue.

“The threatened penalties for sports who do not comply may appear harsh but I urge those sports to adopt these reforms as soon as possible,” Coates said in a statement.

“Taxpayers deserve to know they are getting bang for their buck when it comes to funding sport.”

The move comes in the wake of controversies in swimming and cycling, and follows Australia’s slide to 10th on the medal tally at last year’s London Olympics.

After the London Games, Coates blamed some sporting administrators for failing to take ownership of the Olympic campaign, thereby contributing to the slip.

Swimming Australia last month released a damning report which found flaws in the sport’s governance, separate from another report which was critical of the swim team’s culture and leadership.

Cycling’s Wood review, released in January, also recommended fixing governance shortcomings in that sport.

Swimming Australia president Barclay Nettlefold said the organisation had committed to meeting the new standards.

“As a sport we must aim for best practice governance and administration, and that will lead to creating the best environment for our elite athletes and coaches to succeed,” he said in a statement.