Perkins not selected, Zika virus, shoddy facilities - discuss
The Olympics are stupid.
I’m just glad he plans to go onto the Comm Games and has no Oz Masters aspirations… Cause I would have stitched him up, a patchwork quilt, of my broken dreams.
disappointed for Perko. Watched him ride at the ITS in Melb 2 weeks back.
Olympic selection is the biggest “boys club” ever.
No interest at all.
Yeah, I like the Games… but, generally the Athletes do strike me as the biggest bunch of silver spooners ever and because I’m Australian that makes my tall poppy blood boil.
I’ll be watching for sure! The sport I was a ‘professional’ in is only finally looking to get Olympic inclusion in 2020 - just 22 years too late for me having officially retired in 98. Would I have gone? Most definitely! Would have probably made it too as I was ranked #2 in Australia for a few years.
I did represent Australia in a few International events, including the US Nationals when they still allowed Aliens and a World Cup in Birmingham. It was special to be competing for your county!
Silver spooners? Mostly struggling to make end meet. Ridiculously little support from the Government, and that’s for the mainstream sports. Financial support for a fringe sport? Forget it!
My wife till recently worked at the VIS. Always a struggle to get funding - amazing the results we get as a Nation with such a small population and small funding pool.
From today’s Australian NoCookies | The Australian
They’re at the pinnacle of their sport, but behind the glitz of the Olympic show many of our greatest struggle to pay the bills.
Under the funding model that the Australian Institute of Sport’s Winning Edge program adopted in 2012, athletes who have the greatest potential to get Australia into the top five of the Olympic medal table are prioritised.
But the receive direct funding (dIAS) payments only if they have had an average after-tax ₪income of less than $60,000 a year over the previous four years. The creme de la creme — those who win a gold at a world championship — receive two payments a year of just $17,500. For an emerging athlete with medal potential, that figure can be $5000 a year.
In a bid to ease the financial pressures, stars such as 50km gold medallist walker Jared Tallent, Sydney 2000 equestrian champion Stuart Tinney, Olympic boxer Shelley Watts and 400m runner Anneliese Rubie have turned to the Australian Sports Foundation’s crowdfunding program, which let’s the public make tax-₪deductible donations to support an athlete’s dream.
“There’s a misconception that as an athlete you’re supported by the government, companies and sponsors, but you’re lucky, really, if you get a free pair of shoes every now and then,” Rubie, the first Australian female since Cathy Freeman to make it to the world championship 400m semi-finals, told The Australian. “When you’re at the very top like Usain Bolt there’s a lot more opportunities … and sponsorships, but before then you’re lucky if you break even.”
Rubie, 24, who has a sports scholarship to Sydney University and fits in personal training around her two daily Olympic training sessions, received IAS support for the first time this year after qualifying for Rio.
“It’s a small amount … you can’t expect to give your entire day everyday of the week to the sport for that amount.” Rubie loves what she does too much to use the word “sacrifice”, but is realistic about the fact that “there’s not very many avenues to make money”.
Australian Sports Foundation chief Patrick Walker said sport ₪received about 1 per cent of tax-₪deductible donations. “The arts gets more than eight times — around $200 million — as much as sport, about 24m … Australian sports fans would be shocked to know … many athletes are getting a few thousand dollars and they’re funding training and coaching cost out of their own pocket.”
But why pay athletes at all? Take it back to when it was amateurs with dayjobs ey. All this bullshit of the government paying athletes (even a tiny amount) is kinda dumb and ends up with the countries with the most money just buying the most golds.
Sport is good and all, it’s good that people do it. But the Olympics? Nah, it’s a corrupt bullshit exercise is corruption. Look at Brazil: it’s broke, can’t pay for basic public services for it’s people, but is spending hundreds of millions on 10 days or whatever worth of sport.
Eh, whatever. I don’t have any real coherent arguments against it except my personal prejudice against blowing money for a bit of national prestige while people go hungry.
thats enough pinko talk from you jono. go thorpe!
Love thorpey. That hackett guy is a real go-getter too.
Agreed, I don’t really get professional sports at all.
Yes, they’re very very skilled, talented and have probably worked their arses off to get as good as they are, but so what?
Meares will be Aussie flag bearer though eh, so y’know, bikes n stuff.
It could be asked, how has it bettered society?
Aussie, Aussie, Aussie
That’s the big question ey. I’m all for the government spending money on getting the citizenry off their fat arses and into a pool or onto a bike or a table-tennis bat in their hand, but I don’t reckon dumping cash into elite sports is a particularly good way to go about it.
It’s all just entertainment, and it’s being funded by the taxpayer. Maybe make the tv networks pay for the athletes, like they do for rugby and cricket.
This is good.
Why? Not trolling, just interested.
Agree with the obvious issues with olympics. But I don’t think you can throw professional sport into the “just a bunch of overpaid silver spooners, no use to society” bag. Sport resonates on a level beyond the economic/commercial.
carn the doggies ey jamesy