Never better time to talk up potential
A FAR Northern MP says now is the time to tap a new tropical athlete training industry ahead of the 2032 Olympic Games through the formation of an inter-agency sporting taskforce.
Leichhardt MP Warren Entsch, following Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s announcement of a Queensland Olympic bid, believed a Far Northern boost well ahead of the Games was ripe for the picking.
“There is an opportunity for us to actually grab a very significant portion … leading up to the event starting this year,” he said.
Mr Entsch said Cairns had the perfect tropical conditioning climate for athletic teams looking to get the edge by training under a hot and humid environment.
The federal MP said Cairns could join Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur as leading international training destinations.
“Cairns is head and shoulders above all of them as preferred destinations, we just have to tell the world about it,” he said.
“We have got an international standard hockey facility, we have got an aquatic centre, a netball centre and we are in the final stages of putting a roof over the tennis centre.”
Basketball and AFL facilities, a world-class athletics track and mountain bike trails completed the international sporting offering. sports
“What we need to be doing is writing to the IOC and various sporting organisations around the world telling them we are open for business,” he said.
“We have got everything there, two universities doing tropical sports medicine, a safe city, international cuisine, connectivity and an ideal climate.”
Cairns MP Michael Healy, in principle, supported athlete attraction to the Far North but said there already were specialist teams selling the region as a destination to international visitors.
“(However) once we have identified how we move forward with this bid it will become more coherent and structured and possibly a more well-funded campaign,” Mr Healy said.
Mr Entsch imagined a task force made up of tourism and sporting leaders could work with three levels of government to spearhead a Far North Queensland elite athletic attraction campaign.