‘Sabotage Qld’s Olympic success’: Stadium bungle cripples medal hopes
The gold medal dreams of Queensland’s Olympians could be destroyed by the demolition of their $10m state-of-the-art training centre.
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Queensland’s Olympic athletes could have their new $10m state-of-the-art training centre demolished on the eve of their home Games under the Miles Government’s plan to blow $1.6bn on upgrading the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre.
Major sport stars have led a chorus of warnings that our Olympic medal chances would be crippled if Premier Steven Miles pushed forward with the QSAC option displacing the Queensland Academy of Sport - which has its flagship training facility located in one of the grandstands
There are as yet no plans in place to accommodate the athletes.
Four-time Olympian Cate Campbell said the demolition of a much-touted high performance centre would sabotage Queensland’s success at the Brisbane Olympics.
Campbell echoed fellow Olympic Gold Medallist Glynis Nunn who said athletes would be forced to train interstate ahead of the Games.
Former QAS chair Renita Garard, who quit the post in February, said even just a few months of disruption at the training centre could inhibit athletes’ ability to win medals at the 2032 Games.
The $10m world-class training centre at the QAS was opened by Annastacia Palaszczuk with much fanfare barely two years ago, with the former Premier declaring it Queensland’s “secret weapon” and spruiked as being specifically designed to “hone the talents of Queensland’s Olympians and Paralympians of the future” and allow them to gain “a competitive edge for Paris 2024 and beyond”.
But under the plan to upgrade QSAC to host the athletics in 2032 – a plan described by former Lord Mayor Graham Quirk as “not representing value for money” and being “hard to justify” – the west stand would almost certainly need to be demolished, and the multimillion-dollar athletes training centre housed within it a casualty.
Queensland’s athletes had already suffered a serious blow after the high-profile departure of QAS chief executive and “gold-medal-maker” Chelsea Warr, who sensationally left earlier this year after reports she had clashed with Department of Tourism and Sport bureaucrats over the running of the Academy.
Her departure was followed by Olympic gold medallist Ms Garard, who has since lobbied the government – alongside other sporting heavyweights including NRL coaching great Wayne Bennett – to establish the QAS as an independent body in an effort to stop bureaucratic red tape from strangling the state’s sporting hopes.
Ms Garard told The Courier-Mail the QSAC development had the potential to greatly disrupt the state’s athletes preparing for upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games.
“It appears they’ve swapped disrupting and dislocating cricket and AFL, with disrupting the athletes who will be representing us at the Games,” she said.
Ms Garard also questioned how much consultation had been done by the government in pressing forward with the development.
“Even six months disruption to athletes’ training could have a huge impact – we’re talking athletes training down to the second, which can be the difference between winning Gold or not,” she said.
Campbell, speaking from Arizona where she is doing altitude training, was scathing of the QSAC upgrade decision saying there was no way it would not significantly inconvenience athletes and impact success.
“There’s lots of people who have relocated to be close to that facility and that means they are destabilised already. Where will they go? Where will their support systems be?,” she said.
“It will be a big burden on the national sports to keep supporting those athletes because as it is they are underfunded.
“I think this will impact not just current athletes but will impair our ability to talent identify athletes for the 2032 Games.
“To have a successful Games we have to have athletes be able to prepare in world class facilities which QAS is.’’
Queensland athletics legend Glynis Nunn said demolishing the QAS training centre was “just crazy” and “an absolute waste of money”.
“Holy smokes, it was only just finished not long ago and there was a lot of money put into that,” she said.
“For athletes that are looking for performances, they’re going to have to travel interstate.”
Paralympian Karni Liddell questioned where athletes would train – saying there were not enough training facilities already.
“Our swimming team is shaping up to be one of the best we’ve seen and we need those athletes to be good, and they won’t be if they can’t train,” she said.
“Where are they going to send them? They’ll have to go down to Sydney like Taylor Swift.”
Asked about the displacement, State Development Minister Grace Grace said “the full scope of works and construction dates will be determined through a detailed business case”.
“We will be working closely with stakeholders including experts from the IOC to explore staged construction with minimal disruption,” she said.
“Upgrading QSAC is going to bring exceptional long-lasting benefits to athletics in this state, and to the community more broadly.”
The Minister also promised “zero disruption before the Paris Games” – just four months away.
Opening the facility in February 2022, Ms Palaszczuk said the centre was “extraordinary”.
“This is definitely an Australian first and a world first and we want to make sure that we nurture the next level of athletes,” she said.
“This is … getting Queensland in the fast lane.”
Those comments were echoed by former Sport Minister Stirling Hinchliffe, who said: “this is a one-stop-shop for helping Queensland athletes to train, recover and be podium-ready on the world stage.”
In his review, Mr Quirk said: “the west stand is home to a recently upgraded high performance centre for the Queensland Academy of Sport athletes and administrative headquarters.”
“The west stand would require a substantial redevelopment to accommodate the Games operational requirements to host a major track and field event and to comply with relevant accessibility requirements set out in the Disability Discrimination Act.
“In the event of a redevelopment of the Queensland Sports and Athletics Centre, there will be significant disruption and impact to athlete training in the lead up to competitions (notably the Los Angeles Games, Winter Olympics and Commonwealth Games).
“Given that academies are decentralised and training facilities are based on the athlete’s home base, there will need to be consideration of temporary training facilities or alternative facilities to be made available so as not to displace athletes.”
Ms Garard said it was imperative should the redevelopment and displacement go ahead, an alternate state-of-the-art facility would need to be established to support the needs of Queensland athletes, suggesting relocating the QAS to Chandler could be an option.
“(The replacement) would need to be world-class – like there currently is at QSAC,” she said.
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