Australia being considered as international hub for world athletes getting ready for Olympics

Swimmers, tennis players, golfers, cyclists ... the who’s who of world sport could be heading Down Under early next year as athletes search for a safe haven to get ready for the Tokyo Olympics.

Gold medallist Britain's Adam Peaty poses with his medal after the final of the men's 50m breaststroke event during the swimming competition at the 2019 World Championships at Nambu University Municipal Aquatics Center in Gwangju, South Korea, on July 24, 2019. (Photo by Oli SCARFF / AFP)

• ‘I’m back’: Swim star’s fight to bring down hackers
• World Cup first step for next Aussie Olympics

Novak Djokovic may not be high on the invite list after his doomed tennis tournament in Europe, but many of the biggest stars in world sport are secretly hatching plans to relocate en masse to Australia this summer to try and salvage their disrupted preparations for next year’s rescheduled Tokyo Olympics.

The ongoing uncertainty of the global pandemic means nothing has been finalised yet but News Corp Australia can reveal Australia is being considered as a potential international hub for stranded Olympic hopefuls.

Anxious sports officials have already begun high-level discussions with the federal government and while the plans are still in the preliminary phase, federal sports minister Richard Colbeck confirmed the government has begun looking at possible ways to allow elite athletes into Australia.

Get your sport fix on Kayo ahead of live games returning soon - classic match replays, documentaries and the latest news & announcements. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly >

World champion breaststroker Adam Peaty is keen to base himself in Ausralia,

“We’ve been talking to some of our NSO’s (National Sporting Organisations) already,” Colbeck said.

“There’s still some work to be done at the moment on potential protocols to bring them into the country and what the respective arrangements under which they might come here.

“The NSO’s are having those conversations as well.”

While some professional team sports have resumed competition behind closed doors, most Olympic sports are still waiting for the green light to resume, leaving athletes fearing that time is quickly running out.

Warm-up events that would normally be taking place in Europe and North America right now have been shut down and there are growing concerns that the northern hemisphere will remain off limits for another 12 months.

That will give Australia’s Olympians a huge advantage over the Europeans and Americans because they can train outdoors in our summer - which is winter in the northern hemisphere - but means our athletes won’t be able to get any international competition - potentially scuttling their medal hopes.

Federal sports minister Richard Colbeck is hopeful elite athletes can come into Australia.

Florida is traditionally the destination of choice for northern hemisphere athletes to spend their winters but the spike of coronavirus cases in the so-called Sunshine State has everyone looking for a safer alternative, and Australia is top of everyone’s list.

Melanie Marshall, the coach of British swimming superstar Adam Peaty, told News Corp Australia she wants to bring her entire squad to Queensland next January.

All of the world’s best swimmers — except the Chinese — could be headed to the Gold Coast later this year for the International Swimming League, but Peaty wants to come anyway.

It is also understood Swimming Australia is in talks with getting the star-studded Japanese swim team to Queensland in summer and allowing them to enter the state championships.

The US women’s water polo team, who are the reigning world and Olympic champions, are also trying to get to Australia next summer while dozens of track and field stars from around the world are understood to be making enquiries about how to train and compete in Brisbane and Sydney, as well as the world cross country championships, taking place in Bathurst in March.

Top international cyclists are also hatching plans to come to Australia while the world’s best tennis players and women golfers will all be heading this way as long as they are permitted, which is why the government is looking at ways to make it happen.

The US women’s football team are locked in for a couple of matches.

“Countries want to come here, and not just for the Olympics,” Colbeck said.

“We’re even getting countries wanting to come to play us in the lead up to the Women’s Football World Cup (in 2023).

“The Americans are already locked in with a couple of matches and other countries want to come as well.

“Other NSO’s are telling me the same thing because it’s important our athletes have access to high level competitive sport so if they can come to us instead of us going to them, that’s what we’re looking at.

“We’re also looking at protocols for sport that have a northern hemisphere focus, so what are the protocols about our athletes competing and coming back again.”

Originally published as Australia being considered as international hub for world athletes getting ready for Olympics