Steven Bradbury says all Australia’s Winter Olympians have done the country proud

SO far in Sochi 2014, the price of Olympic gold has been a little too high for a Winter Games minnow like Australia.

Australia’s Anna Segal came fourth in the slopestyle. Picture: Getty Images

SO far in Sochi 2014, the price of Olympic gold has been a little too high for a Winter Games minnow like Australia.

We always punch above our weight, that’s just what us Aussies do, it’s in our DNA. We have done that in Sochi, and not just David Morris, Torah Bright and Lydia Lassila.

The list of other Aussies with “top ten” results is long and still growing: Anna Segal 4th, Russ Henshaw 8th, Britt Cox 5th, Matt Graham 7th, Belle Brockoff 8th, Laura Peel 7th, Danielle Scott 9th, Kent Callister 9th.

Australia should be proud of all these athletes. They were all good enough to win medals, but in 2014 it wasn’t to be. Will we see them all again in 2018? I hope so, but for some the price of Olympic glory will be too high.

As the “face” of women’s snowboarding, Torah Bright, doesn’t have to worry about where her next meal is coming from. Lydia Lassila and Alex ‘Chumpy’ Pullin are not on struggle street either.

They, however, are just three on a team of 60 athletes. The other 56 (I have left out multi-millionaire Dale Begg-Smith) are in it entirely for the thrill of the chase, the fix of adrenalin, to see if they can be the best in the world. Adrenalin doesn’t pay off a mortgage though.

Don’t get me wrong. Australian athletes are funded better than some countries and the Olympic Winter Institute does a fantastic job distributing the funding based on performance.

Anything you have read that contains the name Bruce Brockhoff is complete sabotage and simply incorrect.

Jarryd Hughes is a great talent and has not been left an “outcast” by the Australian system. In fact Jarryd has been supported by the New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) which pays for his own personal wax technician and his coach. Belle Brockhoff also has NSWIS backing for the same support staff.

Both these athletes have a great future and if they choose to continue to work hard, they will soon find themselves included in the winter institute program with “Chumpy” Pullin.

Australia’s Anna Segal came fourth in the slopestyle. Picture: Getty Images

My advice to both these athletes would be to let their results do their talking and I’d encourage Mr Brockhoff and any other meddling parents to put a sock in it. They are looking through “parent coloured glasses” that are fogged up worse than when the men’s snowboard cross race got postponed.

What will #teamoutcast do when offered full OWIS scholarships next season? Will they knock it back - nope.

Even still, I think the question begs, how do we keep up when nations like Russia, South Korea and China fully fund their athletes, meaning a training salary?

In today’s competitive world, being an elite athlete means more than training twice a day and working a part time job in between.

The OWIA athletes rarely need to dig into their own pockets for training expenses but they still need to eat and pay rent. In between training sessions there are ice baths, massage, nutrition, mindset coaching, injury prevention strategy, video analysis, equipment maintenance, stretching and more. It’s a full time job that requires a single-minded focus.

The OWIA is the funding body for Winter Sports and since its inception in the late 1990s the philosophy has been to direct the funding and resources to the sports where we have the best opportunity to win Olympic Medals.

Its first success was a bronze medal via Zali Steggall in the Nagano Olympics in 1998. Since then our number of medallists and medal contenders in, among others, Aerial skiing, Skeleton, Ski and Boarder Cross and Slopestyle has exploded. The OWIA in Sochi has again, punched above its weight. Will it be able to continue to do this? Time will tell.

The price of Olympic Gold is getting higher. Australians pride themselves on the success of our sportsmen and women. It is part of our DNA, our culture. We are a sporting mad nation.

Winning medals at the Olympic Games (Summer and Winter) is an important part of what makes us all Australian. Funding elite sport is expensive, but watching Aussies succeed on the world sporting stage is what inspires our kids to put down their smartphone and participate.

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