Top Olympic athletes told their funding grants will remain in place during coronavirus crisis
Our best Olympic athletes have had their funding fears allayed as they adjust to the news of the Tokyo Games’ postponement.
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Update: Top Olympic medal contenders have been given a guarantee they will continue to receive funding through the coronavirus lockdown despite fears of massive cuts to high-performance sport that threaten to ruin their golden dreams.
Some of the country’s biggest stars were in danger of losing their grants – worth up to $20,000 a year – at the end of 2020 after the Tokyo Olympics were postponed until 2021 but received assurances on Friday that the Medal Incentive Funding scheme will be extended for another 12 months.
Normally cash-strapped athletes need to win a medal at international level to retain their funding for the following year but with international sports on hold because of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) has agreed to backdate the eligibility period.
“We’re going to base it off results that have already occurred,” AOC chief executive Matt Carroll told The Saturday Telegraph after announcing the decision to around 200 athletes and officials in a teleconference hook-up in the wake of the Olympic postponement.
“The general mood is obviously sadness, as it is for everyone at the changes in the world today, but there’s also some relief at the certainty that they can prepare properly for next year.”
While Australia’s top athletes will continue to receive their grants, concerns about another wave of funding reductions could be a goal killer for lesser name Olympic hopefuls who remain undecided about whether they will push on to 2021.
At the same time Australian sporting organisations are making mass redundancies, Olympic sports are bracing for crippling cuts to government funded programs, with some national bodies in danger of losing everything and others unsure whether there will be enough money to even hire coaches.
The unprecedented 12-month delay to the next Olympics has only added to the uncertainty for sports officials after the federal government announced the budget was being pushed back to October.
Carroll has been in regular discussions with Sport Australia and the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) director Peter Conde and said all are in agreement that Australia’s Olympians will need extended funding for a 2021 Olympics.
“The institute of sport is formulating what they’ll need to ensure they can continue to provide for athletes preparing for the Games so they’re on the job, that’s for sure,” Carroll said.
“And I do know Sport Australia has sat down with different sports to discuss how the government is supporting other industries and small businesses, which is what a lot of sports bodies are.”
The AOC doesn’t receive any government money but is in a sound financial state after its major sponsors committed to 2021 so will help fund Olympic sports that don’t receive any money.
Carroll has been leading the movement calling on the government to restore funding levels to where they were in previous years but said the grim economic state the country now finds itself in changes things.
“Thousands of Australians are out of work and the government is doing stimulus packages and the like to ensure they get back to work and that’s the most important thing,” he said.
“For high performance sport, we accept we’re in a different world than when I started the campaign so what we need is enough to get by so there might be discussions with Sport Australia and the AIS about allocations and there might be some programs to pull back on to ensure the funds go to the sports in preparation for the Games next year.
“There’s lots of ways of doing things and we’ll play our part in making sure we support the sports and their athletes.”
Sydney isolation room where Tokyo Games will be saved
The hardest decisions over reorganising the Tokyo Olympics are going to be made by a man locked down his Sydney home.
Currently under quarantine after recently returning home from Switzerland, John Coates could be the busiest man in world sport during the global shutdown.
After the historic decision to postpone the Games, the chairman of the co-ordination commission for Tokyo now has 12 months to do what normally takes seven years.
The complexities of arranging an event that involves athletes from more than 200 countries and territories as well as governments, heads of state, multinational companies and costs billions of dollars, is a diplomatic and logistical minefield at the best of times.
The long-serving Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) President and IOC stalwart might be the only person in the country happy to bunker down in self isolation for the six months because his do-to list is overflowing.
The first big decision is when to hold the Games because there are so many variables, including what to do about all the other events that have been locked in for 2021, how to secure venues and accommodation that may no longer be available and how to satisfy the needs of the Japanese government and international broadcasters.
The most likely time is the last week of July and the first week of August – the same time the Games were due to be held this year.
The clue was provided by the two biggest Olympic sports – swimming and athletics – which are both scheduled to hold their world championships in that same window but have already indicated they are looking at switching dates.
It’s also the timeframe that best suits NBC and the American broadcasters carry a lot of weight.
Some of the temporary venues that were going to be used for the Games, including convention halls, have already been booked out for 2021 so will either have to be replaced or rehired, which will come at a hefty cost.
More than 45,000 hotel rooms that were block-booked for this year have to be re-acquired along with the Olympic Village, built to host over 11,000 Olympians and 4500 Paralympians, with units already sold.
All of these will add to the bottom line for a Games that is already struggling to stay within its budget but Tokyo is not Rio and AOC chief executive Matt Carroll said Japan’s the one country that can get the job done.
“The Games have never been postponed previously. But I have no doubt that when the world moves past these very difficult times, the Tokyo Olympic Games will provide an opportunity for the world to reconnect in a spirit of unity and hope,” he said.
“Japan is up to the task and they will do a great job.”