Funding withdrawn from four sports as ‘they will never win a medal’ says director

Funding for some of Australia’s top sporting programs is being frozen less than two years out from the Tokyo Olympics. Four sports will lose funding altogether. Australian Institute of Sport director said funding was cut as “they are sports that are never going to win a medal”.

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Funding for some of Australia’s top sporting programs is being frozen less than two years out from the Tokyo Olympics.

The powerhouse athletics, water polo, volleyball and gymnastics programs are only guaranteed 70 per cent of their previous budget in the new round of funding recommended by the Australian Institute of Sport.

Under the new arrangements approved by Sport Australia they will lose the remaining 30 per cent unless they can justify to AIS director Peter Conde why it is needed.

The athletics program has an $8.9 million budget but was put on notice by the AIS after Australian athletes failed to win a gold medal in the Rio 2016 Olympics which champion hurdler Sally Pearson missed with injury.

Athletes will need to convince Australian Institute of Sport Director Peter Conde why they deserved 100 per cent of their funding.

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Successful sports such as swimming are not affected but The Daily Telegraph can reveal that four smaller sports will lose AIS public funding altogether.

These include synchronised swimming, table tennis and two sports that are being kept secret.

Table tennis received $250,000 a year and synchronised swimming $50,000.

Mr Conde said that funding was being withdrawn because “they are sports that were never going to win a medal”.

The athletics program was put on notice after they failed to win a gold medal in Rio. Sally Pearson missed it due to injury. Picture: Adam Head

Successful sports such as swimming won’t be affected. Picture: AAP Image/Dave Hunt

“These are sports that had a very low probability of success in the future,” Mr Conde said. “We have to make the decision in the context of funding new sports in the future.

“If it was a sport that was ever going to or potentially going to win a medal we would not have done this.”

The funding cuts were described by sporting chiefs as creating a “worst nightmare” situation in the lead-up to the Tokyo Games.

“This is a kick in the guts … we are less than two years out from Tokyo and the last thing athletes need is distraction and disruption,” one sports CEO said. “We need an intervention and we need it now. We need a commitment from government to find the money and not cut funds up to and during the Tokyo Games.”

“A month ago the Sports Minister said there was $50m for sport, well why then do multiple sports get cut? This is not an Olympic dream this is our worst nightmare.”

Table tennis will lose their $250,000 funding. Picture: Aaron Francis

While synchronised swimming loses $50,000.

Mr Conde said only able-bodied athletes would be frozen out of full access to funds because Australian Paralympians were performing well.

“What we have said is that what para-athletes has achieved is outstanding,” he said. “This is about maximising the performance of able bodied athletics to make sure it is really strong. We can do better than we did in Rio.”

He said athletics, water polo, gymnastics and volleyball could end up with less or more annual funding after the AIS had reviewed progress.

The AIS will redistribute funds saved from the axed sports to 12 new high performance programs.

Sports Minister Bridget McKenzie supports the funding cut decision. Picture: AAP Image/Lukas Coch

Australian Women’s Football will pocket $800,000 and Rugby Sevens will secure $605,000. There will also be $200,000 for surfing and $400,000 for shooting.

Sports Minister Bridget McKenzie said she fully supported the funding decisions.

“Sport Australia is responsible for funding decisions with respect to national sporting organisation as is appropriate.

“They have the expertise and the AIS is committed to ensuring we have a high performance system that delivers for our athletes and sport.”

Originally published as Funding withdrawn from four sports as ‘they will never win a medal’ says director