London bound – one year out

With Australian sport on a high following Cadel Evans’ historic Tour de France victory it makes the one year mark from the start of the London 2012 Olympic Games even more exciting.

With the Olympics and Paralympics looming, it is pleasing to see a number of key projects and facilities up and running to ensure our athletes arrive in London with the best possible support and preparation.

This year the Australian Government’s Green and Gold project has injected $3.85 million into our top athletes and teams from 16 Olympic sports and the Australian Paralympic Committee to assist with training and preparations for London 2012.

This increased support for our athletes and teams, together with record new high performance and Direct Athlete Support funding, will provide that extra boost and turn potential silver medals into gold and fourth places into podium finishes.

Across the high performance sport network the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) and its state and territory counterparts are working together to support our Olympic and Paralympic sports.

In Italy, the AIS European Training Centre is now in operation, with a host of Olympic sports already taking advantage of this valuable resource to finetune their preparations.

Boosting media coverage of women’s sport

A number of national sporting bodies have been allocated important new funding as part of an initiative targeted at increasing the level of media coverage of women’s sport.

Minister for Sport Mark Arbib and Minister for the Status of Women Kate Ellis recently announced that 15 sports will share in $1.45 million in funding as part of the Australian Government’s Women in Sport Media Grants.

The funding is designed to help sports increase the exposure and reach of women’s sport in the Australian media by allowing them to develop quality content for broadcasters and attract greater coverage.

The performances of our female athletes in recent Olympics, Paralympics and Commonwealth Games; the efforts of the Matildas; our world champion netballers; and standout results by our elite women cyclists, to name but a few, illustrate the strength of women’s sport in Australia. However, the challenge remains to get these results into our mainstream media where the research reminds us that women’s sport receives less than 9 per cent of sports news media coverage.

Thanks to this new funding and other initiatives being supported by the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) to increase their capacity and capabilities, our sporting organisations will be better positioned to promote the success of their female athletes.

Consulting with sport to improve our business

To ensure the ASC can help lead and support Australian sport more effectively, we recently conducted a comprehensive survey to seek feedback from our sport partners. The survey explores responses to our strategic direction; perceived effectiveness of ASC strategies, tools and resources for implementing the Government’s vision for Australian sport; and satisfaction with our provision of service and advice and with the way we engage with our partners.

In coming months the ASC will compile the survey results and release the findings. Importantly this information will be used to identify our strengths as well as areas where we can improve our performance as a partner and leader in sport.

Thank you to all who took part in this process.

Professor Peter Fricker OAM
Acting CEO
Australian Sports Commission