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Wickzki
Definitely Sam MacLure.
- Oct 1, 2010
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Sorry for the rant but I'm more than a little passionate about this topic having spent years working in sports and having a kid in the school system who is old enough to decide what sports he wants to participate in.So what are we talking here do we finally need that ‘probe’ into our men’s team? Like the one Roy & HG called for back in Athens when only Thorpe & Hackett won gold? It is proving just to be a bridge too far to match other countries male swimmers. Kyle being the only thing close to having another ‘Freak’ athlete swimmer post Thorpe & Hackett and his main event being the most competitive in world swimming probably played its part in not grabbing the gold medals you’d ideally would’ve liked.
It shouldn't be a surprise that we're struggling so heavily on the men's side of swimming.
It starts at the grassroots level and builds from there.
For starters, if you're a potentially great athlete the money is much better (and easier) to get in many other sports.
Most sports have amazing gateway programs that are super easy to get into. For example, for AFL you have AusKick and junior footy. Similar programs exist for rugby league, soccer, basketball, etc.
There's 60-ish AFL players drafted each year. All of them making a living wage by being on an AFL list. There are approximately 60 players playing collegiate basketball in the US which helps lead to about 400 jobs in professional basketball both here and around the world. God knows how many Aussies are playing football here in Australia as well as Europe/Asia/Americas, etc. Lots involved in cricket academies, rugby league, baseball, etc.
Comparatively, there are 41 Australian Olympic swimmers (men and women combined), many competing at their second or subsequent Olympics. How many of them make a sustainable income and don't have to supplement their swimming earnings with a "real job"?
Compared to swimming these other sports have much greater pull. Swimming is exclusive in comparison. Many of the athletes who could emerge as Olympic-quality swimmers will pursue other opportunities before they even consider swimming. That leaves swimming with a smaller pool of potential athletes in a country with much fewer people than some of these European, North American, and Asian countries who are excelling.
That said, I'm not at all surprised that athletes like Marchand are having success. His rise coincides perfectly with Paris having the Olympic games. That's not a "fluke" - it's intentional. I don't know how many people here are old enough to remember when Sydney won the right to host the Olympics in September 1993 but what those who were will remember is just how heavily the Olympics sports were pushed in the subsequent years. The same is true of France for these games and most other Olympics. Increasing amounts of money poured into making our Australian athletes be as successful as possible in Sydney and to make the country proud of its progress on the world stage.
I'm the treasurer for my local school's parents and citizens group. The only Olympics sports program that has reached out to our school has been Little Athletics which we've encouraged the kids to sign up with. However, that leaves an issue for every other sport (who haven't made contact). We can't help get kids into programs if they do nothing to promote them in the school system. We have their target market (the kids). At the same time, we've had all of the other professional bodies hit us up with marketing material (e.g. AusKick with the Brisbane Lions sending players to help coach it!).
If the AOC and Swimming Australia want sustainable, long-term, success they must find a way to match it with the other sports. Given we have Brisbane in 2032 now is the perfect time to do so.
No inquiry needed.