The Chairman of the Australian Sports Commission, Mr Peter Bartels AO, has congratulated the Australian team on its achievements at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. 

'Again we have punched above our weight on the ever more competitive international sporting stage, Mr Bartels said. Our performance has generally been in line with our anticipated results, with a few exceptions. Well done to the Olympic team members and their coaches and support staff.'

It may seem somewhat clichéd, but sport occupies a central position in Australian life. It is a source of health and enjoyment for millions who participate as players, coaches, officials, administrators and spectators, the vast majority of whom do so in a volunteer capacity. As an industry, sport contributes significantly to the Australian economy.

The Australian Sports Commission plays a central leadership role in the development and operation of the Australian sport system, administering and funding innovative sport programs on behalf of the Australian Government. 

The world renowned Australian Institute of Sport, a key component of the Commission, is a world-leading centre of excellence for the training and development of elite athletes and coaches. The Institute has a reputation as being world’s best practice, and many other countries have endeavoured to model their high performance systems on Australia’s.

As an organisation, the Australian Sports Commission unashamedly demonstrates a commitment to excellence and quality, and believes it is vital that the Australian sports system delivers these two qualities in all areas, including: athlete performance; participation opportunities; the development of coaches, officials and support service providers; and the governance and management of sporting organisations.

Australia’s innovative systems and practices have enabled us to achieve beyond expectations in international sport and have subsequently been seen as international benchmarks for other nations to copy or adapt in efforts to develop their own sports systems.  The objective of many nations has been to sustain or improve their medal counts in the Beijing and London Olympic and Paralympic Games and beyond. These developments are placing severe pressure on Australia’s competitive position in high performance sport.

'There is no doubt a number of our key competitor countries have lifted their game in recent years. Some have benefited from increased resources being made available for their high performance sport systems, while others have targeted specific sports and events and channelled their programs and resources accordingly,' commented Mr Bartels. 

In addition, many of our competitors have extensive supplementary investment and infrastructure in place to underpin their high performance sport systems – primarily through the education system and local government, as well as through competitions, clubs, the military and the corporate sector.

Mr Bartels is disappointed at a number of uninformed comments made about the Australian sports system during the Beijing Games. 

 'Comments made suggesting that Australian sport lacks strategic planning and direction are laughable,' he said. 'The suggestion that there has been no strategic and coordinated approach in the Australian sports system since the early 1990s is wrong.'

 With the financial support of the Australian Government, the Commission works closely with national sporting organisations on a four-year planning and funding cycle. Each sport is assessed against the criteria of excellence, relevance and effectiveness. Their individual strategic plans and national athlete development pathways are examined and refined, in consultation with other key stakeholders. This process has been in place for two Olympic cycles.

Supplementing this process is an annual review of the costed operational plans of each sport, which detail the effective measures they will use to deliver their strategic objectives. In addition to the quadrennial and annual planning, the Commission conducts reviews of individual sports to provide expert analysis and guidance to sport, particularly in the areas of governance, management and high performance outcomes.

In addition to this, for the Beijing cycle the Commission also developed a performance reporting and monitoring framework titled the Beijing Athlete Program, which included regular meetings and interaction between the Commission and sports related to the implementation of their high performance programs. 

The Australian Olympic Committee was invited to participate in this process. In the current financial year the Australian Sports Commission received funding of $219.9 million from the Australian Government, which represents just 0.075 per cent of total Government expenditure. Of this amount, $141.5 million is allocated to the Commission’s high performance sport outcome, 'Excellence in sports performances by Australians', about one half of which supports sports on the summer Olympics and Paralympics programs and their high performance athletes. With the exception of handball, modern pentathlon and synchronised swimming, the Commission provides funds to support the high performance programs of all sports competing at the Olympics.

'Herein lays one of the fundamental issues confronting Australian sport,' Mr Bartels commented.  'We have had to spread our limited resources too thinly across too many sports.

'I am sure that many will now call for the Government to substantially increase funding across the board for Olympic sports so as to improve our medal tally performance at the London Olympics,' reflected Mr Bartels. 

'However, I think it’s time to reflect that the Australian sports funding and training system has a much wider role than to simply focus on two weeks of Olympic summer sport once every four years, because our large participation numbers are in non-Olympic sports, and participation in them is an important component of the Australian Sports Commission’s mission: "To enrich the lives of all Australians through Sport."

'Regardless of the Olympics, the Government must now decide to substantially increase funding or target funding to performance outcomes accordingly and it is time to consider our sports system as a whole, including funding. Australian sport is now at the crossroads where we must redefine our operating strategies,' said Mr Bartels, 'a fact that has been recognised by the Government in its plans for an independent review. The Australia Sports Commission strongly supports this review and will obviously be making a comprehensive submission to the review panel.

'One of the things I believe the review will conclude is that contrary to some general and sweeping statements that have been made, there is little in the way of widespread duplication in the Australian high performance sport system. The system is not perect, and there is room for some clarification and delineation of roles played by some stakeholders,' Bartels noted, 'but with one exception I don’t think major structural changes to the system are warranted.  Certainly not at the national level.

'Obviously an increase in the funding available for sport will benefit the system, but it is not just about the quantum. We need to adopt a more targeted approach to supporting high performance sport and this will no doubt upset some passionate people in the sector and those that may have some vested interests in maintaining the status quo.'

Mr Bartels has found the comments and advice emerging from Great Britain about the need for a targeted approach as very interesting.

'The British team has clearly had a wonderful Beijing Olympics, and their marked rise up the medal tally shows the results of targeting sports and events to be supported. Of course, the staggering amount of funding provided by government has also helped,' he added.

'It is time for changes in Australian sport as we enter the London cycle,' Bartels concluded, 'but any changes need to be made based on evidence and full information, not change for change’s sake. From my long experience in sport, the single major change I believe that is needed is for the genuine amalgamation of the various programs and activities of the Australian Institute of Sport and the state and territory institutes and academies of sport into one integrated system.

''This needs to be complemented by increased spending on talent identification, sports science and sports medicine, and support for coaches. We need to sharpen our funding focus on highly ranked athletes and sports at the expense of non-performers, and grants for national sporting organisations need to be increased and indexed. At the community sport end of the national sport system we need to increase opportunities and support for participation,' said Mr Bartels.

'Particular attention needs to be paid to physical activity in the school system and school sports overall. The success of our sport system has been the community club structure and the hundreds of thousands of volunteers that support our athletes. More facilities and administration support is needed in this area.

'Sport in this country is at the crossroads, and the next few months provide the Government with the opportunity to make its mark on the system and to leave a legacy of sporting success into the future.'