Olympic sports funding axe

FUNDING for some of Australia’s top sporting programs is being frozen less than two years out from the Tokyo Olympics.

The powerhouse athletics, water polo, volleyball and gymnastics programs are only guaranteed 70 per cent of their previous budget in the new round of funding recommended by the Australian Institute of Sport.

Under the new arrangements approved by Sport Australia they will lose the remaining 30 per cent unless they can justify to AIS director Peter Conde why it is needed.

The athletics program has an $8.9 million budget but was put on notice by the AIS after Australian athletes failed to win a gold medal in the Rio 2016 Olympics.

Successful sports such as swimming are not affected but News Corp Australia can reveal four smaller sports will lose AIS public funding altogether.

These include synchronised swimming, table tennis and two sports that are being kept secret. Table tennis received $250,000 a year and synchronised swimming $50,000.

Mr Conde said funding was being withdrawn because “they are sports that were never going to win a medal”.

“These are sports that had a very low probability of success in the future,” Mr Conde said. “We have to make the decision in the context of funding new sports in the future.

“If it was a sport that was ever going to or potentially going to win a medal we would not have done this.”

The funding cuts were described by sporting chiefs as creating a “worst nightmare” situation in the lead-up to the Tokyo Games.

“This is a kick in the guts … we are less than two years out from Tokyo and the last thing athletes need is distraction and disruption,” one sports CEO said.

“We need an intervention and we need it now. We need a commitment from govern- ment to find the money and not cut funds up to and during the Tokyo Games.

“A month ago the Sports Minister said there was $50 million for sport, well why then do multiple sports get cut? This is not an Olympic dream this is our worst nightmare.”

Mr Conde said only ablebodied athletes would be frozen out of full access to funds because Australian Paralympians were performing well.

The AIS will redistribute funds to 12 new high performance programs.

Australian women’s football will pocket $800,000 and rugby sevens will secure $605,000. There will also be $200,000 for surfing and $400,000 for shooting.

Sports Minister Bridget McKenzie said she fully supported the funding decisions.