AOC Ends Year With Crawford Attack

The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) has ended the year with a substantive criticism of the Crawford Report, saying it lacks a "broader vision" for the future of Australian sport.

Already been heavily criticised by AOC President John Coates, who has accused Federal Sports Minister Kate Ellis of allowing Australia's hopes of a top-five finish in the London 2012 Games to slide through a lack of funding for Olympic sports, the AOC continued its attack with a statement saying that he had met with Minister Ellis to provide her with a copy of the AOC Study Group's response to the Crawford Report.

The AOC statement said there had been an "apparent lack of consideration" of previous AOC briefings, adding that "a range of ... recommendations and findings are restated in this response, to ensure that they are taken into account when the Federal Government responds to the Crawford Report and more importantly, its future policies and plans for the support of Australian sport."

The AOC's 81-page report continued "while the (Crawford) Report offers many tactical and strategic recommendations to ensure the continuing robustness of the Australian sport system, there does not appear to be a broader vision articulated for sport in Australia in the longer term.

"The Crawford Report rejects, without any real justification, the goal of Australia maintaining a top five ranking at the Olympic Games.

"If targets set by the AOC ... are not considered valid, then on what basis will a valid target be established which is consistent with the notion of national measures?

"There appears to have emerged an implied requirement to choose specifically between funding Olympic and the so-called national ethos or participation sports.

"This has generated a divisive debate within sport as to which has the greater entitlement to funding. In the view of the AOC, the decision is neither discrete, nor finite.

"Rather there is a logical continuum between participation and high performance sports ...

"Any decision to fund either part of this important ecosystem has implications for the other, and accordingly such decisions need to be made holistically."

The AOC said it was disappointed in the lack of a specific call for increased sports funding.

"In all other nations in which participation and high performance sport is a national priority, government funding has increased substantially in the last decade," the AOC added.

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