Olympic athletes’ Hunger Games

The man who coached the Hockeyroos to two Olympic gold medals, is shocked the team is facing a funding nightmare.

Ric Charlesworth was ‘gobsmacked’ to leave the Hockeyroos face a funding cut

The man who coached the Hockeyroos to two Olympic gold medals, Ric Charlesworth, is shocked the team is facing a funding nightmare.

Charlesworth said he was “disappointed” when he heard the news that the Australian women’s hockey team, if they don’t perform in Tokyo, will have their funding cut by 60 per cent as there is no medal forecast for Paris 2024.

“I’m gobsmacked,” Charlesworth said. “I am very concerned about where we are heading.”

As it stands, Australian athletes heading to Tokyo are involved in what has been described by many as a “pathetic funding version of the Hunger Games”.

If you are one of those athletes in Tokyo, who doesn’t soar high enough, jump far enough, run fast enough, simply do enough, you and your sport will lose funding, a large chunk or all, and in turn probably your sporting dream.

Over the past decade many sports have had their funding cut and financial hardship is a common story for many Olympians heading for Tokyo.

Talking to athletes and coaches, you can sense the mental burden of going into an Olympics has never been higher on Australian athletes — Charlesworth agrees.

“This scenario just increases the tension and the pressure,” Charlesworth said. “It’s just a further level of tension for people who have to compete in a highly intense environment anyway. It doesn’t make the job easier.”

The Hockeyroos haven’t won an Olympic medal in five cycles. But Charlesworth says that, rather than just consider the medals won or likely to be won, the Sports Commission should look a little closer at the performance.

“You have to look behind the performance,” Charlesworth said. “Twice the Hockeyroos missed out because of goal difference at the Olympics on being in the semi-finals.’’

“Twice in 2014 and 2006 they lost the final of the world cup — the major tournament in between the Olympics — to get to the final of the world cup says something. It says there’s quality there.”

“I imagine they are ranked in the top three or two in the world right now … if the Matildas were to finish in the final of the world cup it would be massive. The Hockeyroos are pretty damn good.”

Those at the top of Hockey Australia informed the players before the news broke to cushion the blow. One hockey insider described the possible funding cut as “standard politicking” at a Games and hopes that Tokyo is a place where the team can revive their Olympic fortunes — and their future.