Winning Edge fails to deliver, so what now for Australia's Olympic hopes?

Research output: Contribution to journalOnline ResourceResearch

Abstract

[Extract]
Rio 2016 is over and questions are being asked about why the Australian team didn’t perform any better. Making things worse is the fact that this worsening performance comes despite a new sports funding strategy that was supposed to boost the national medal tally.

Following a disappointing performance by the national team at the London 2012 Olympic Games, the Australian Sport Commission implemented a new funding strategy called Australia’s Winning Edge. This approach projected a top-five finish on the medal table in the 2016 and 2020 Olympic Games.

Winning Edge prioritises funding toward sports that have the greatest chance of success or those that can demonstrate a capability to deliver results. These high-performance investment principles outline how the Australian Sports Commission makes funding decisions. The bottom line is that sports must contribute to Winning Edge targets in order to receive long-term investment.

Prior to Winning Edge, the national sport strategy took a “whole of sport” approach. Funding was allocated to sports with large participation numbers and clear athlete pathways into elite programs. Unlike Winning Edge, it wasn’t primarily based on international performance results.
Original languageEnglish
JournalThe Conversation
Publication statusPublished - 23 Aug 2016

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