Australian Sport in Decline; A real possibility.

Rob, Thanks for the post, I concur with your view on Australian Sport Institutes being likened to the London Underground. Although we were change agents for high performance sport, and rightly gained momentum towards the dias for doing so, today we are trawling with smaller vessels so to speak than your nation and many others. The emergence of developing and established nations creating similar yet more aligned frameworks to create welcomed outcomes for those involved across the sporting continumm is alarming to those of us that are over here in Australia. Furthermore, even more alarming is the poaching of our Intellectual knowledge of sport science, coaching methodologies and sport psychology practices that have beared fruit over many years. Thankfully, the Australian culture of never give up on your mate is still in great working order on the field! As you are aware it is cyclical process, insiders say it will take the 2012 Olympics to kick start Australia's road to success again.

This is a controversial headline, but is more about politics than sport. Another bureaucrat trying to lobby for more money. I would compare it more to the NHS than the underground. Too many managers and bean-counters siphoning off the money into academic schemes when the money could be given to the people who can bring results.

This whole article rests on the assumption that Australian sport is defined by the Olympics, when in fact there are a ton of other sports that Australians do because they want to - not because it is some quasi-national-pride thing that is run by out of touch powerbrokers.

Australia has always 'punched above its weight' in sport. It could be said that this 'decline' is merely a case of the balance shifting to a more representative reflection of population. Can a country with 20 million people really expect to keep coming in the top 5 of the total medal count when there are countries who have that population living in a single city? It would be arrogant to think that sporting talent was so disproportionately allocated amongst the global population.

Australians will still look up to those who play cricket, motorcycle world champions, the surfers who dominate around the world, Australian Rules footballers who will never wear a gold medal, America's Cup team members who sail on boats with American and Swiss flags and compete at the top of the world because it's in the DNA - because coming from the bottom of the world and showing that you are the best has its own rewards.

Having said all that. There is a strong case to be made that the pioneering methods developed at the Institute of sport have had a trickle down effect to other sports in Australia, however - the rise or decline of sport begins at a much younger age. It's about heroes. It's about posters on bedroom walls and getting out in the sunshine. It's about not wanting to go home because you are having too much fun. $100 million here or there to some manager or another is not going to impact that part of Australian sport anytime soon