Commonwealth Games – Opening Ceremony – Alexander Stadium, Birmingham, Britain – July 28, 2022 General view of the Australian national team during the athletes’ parade REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov
MELBOURNE, Oct 5 (Reuters) – Australian sport is making impressive gains in global competition but has failed to develop athletes and coaches that represent the country’s diversity, former Olympic swimming champion Kieren Perkins said on Wednesday.
Perkins, who now heads the national sports funding agency, the Australian Sports Commission, said little had changed since he left sport to pursue a career in banking more than a decade ago.
“Sports needs to be much more open and inclusive,” the 49-year-old said in a speech at the National Press Club.
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“I was very disheartened, but honestly I’m not surprised to see the sport look identical to when I finished in the late 2000s as an athlete. To see also : AP Sports Summary at 11:20. EDT | Sports | yakimaherald.com.
“We have not progressed and it is imperative that our sports sector becomes truly representative of a modern, progressive and diverse Australia.
“By 2032 (Olympics), if the sport still looks the same as it does today, I must not have done my job properly.”
Perkins cited Australia’s Commonwealth Games delegation in Birmingham as evidence of the lack of diversity in elite sport.
While 53% of athletes were women, less than 10% of high performance coaches were women. Thirteen percent of the team was born overseas compared to 29% of the Australian population.
Perkins said Australian sport needed to do more to nurture talent from disadvantaged backgrounds and create a more inclusive environment for people who might be excluded by rigid structures around competition, training and community-based coaching.
“All Australians must see themselves in their sporting heroes, helping to promote national pride, drive participation in sport and increase our talent pool,” said Perkins, who won back-to-back 1,500m freestyle gold medals at the 1992 and 1996 Olympics. . years.
At Olympic level, Australia is enjoying a renaissance ahead of hosting the Games in Brisbane in 2032, with its athletes winning 17 gold medals in Tokyo last year, matching the country’s haul in Athens in 2004.
Australia’s Winter Olympians won a record four medals at the Beijing Games this year and will enjoy increased funding to prepare for the Milan-Cortina Games in 2026.
Perkins announced the government had pledged A$28.6 million ($18.6 million) to support athletes through the four-year cycle to Milan-Cortina, the first commitment of its kind for the Winter Games.
Australia will host the 2026 Commonwealth Games in the southern state of Victoria six years before the Brisbane Olympics, giving the sports industry a big boost in the next decade.
Maintaining strong momentum beyond 2032 will be a challenge, said Perkins, who noted Australia’s long decline in high performance after hosting the 2000 Sydney Games.
“We’re still a strong sports system and we’re doing things well, but we’ve spent the last two decades trying to get back to where we were then,” he said.
“Brisbane ’32 should be a stepping stone, not a finish line.”
($1 = 1.5404 Australian dollars)
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Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Edited by Peter Rutherford See the article : YES:AM | What’s wrong with the Yankees?.
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