The Crawford Report on Australian Sport – a preview from the crystal ball….

So, the time is almost at hand.

The release of the report all Australian Sport has been waiting for over a year…the Crawford Report – is due any day now. (You know it is about to be released because the politicians are trying so hard to deny the final report exists).

For those of you not familiar with Crawford, take a look at http://www.sportpanel.org.au/internet/sportpanel/publishing.nsf

If we had a crystal ball, I wonder what will be contained in the report……..I wonder….I wonder….(imagine a fade out here like those movie “dream” sequences).

Let’s start with what you can almost guarantee Crawford will not offer:

1. A significant increase in funding to all sports in Australia;
2. A significant increase in funding to all high performance programs, high performance sports, high performance athletes, high performance coaches or the Academy / Institute of Sport network;
3. An increase in the number of sports receiving access to high performance funding;
4. A significant increase in targeted, applied sports science, sports medicine research;
5. A significant increase in funding innovative talented athlete identification and development systems.

So, in other words, the bottom line message to Australian Sport’s High Performance Community will be:

“You will have to find ways of winning at international level not only with less money than your major competitors but in real terms less money than you have had in the past ten years”.

In some ways this is not a bad thing.

High Performance sport is after all the sports environment where change, innovation and creativity needs to be accelerated to stay ahead of your competitors. It is the one segment of the sports industry where new ideas, new research, new directions and new ways of doing things should be engaged and embraced. Quite often effective change is driven by economic necessity and innovation can be born out of financial hardship, i.e. you have to find another way of doing things because you have no choice.

However, look at what Australia is being asked to do:

1. Compete against nations with much larger populations;
2. Compete against nations with better competitive geography (i.e. northern hemisphere based);
3. Compete against nations who are expanding their investment in high performance sport systems and services;
4. And….do all the above with a decrease in funding: do more with less.

It’s like saying to one of the Formula One teams, “Listen – here’s an idea. All the other teams will be increasing their commitment to development, research, technology, engine performance enhancement and fuel chemistry but we want you guys to use last year’s car, halve your budget and also win the Driver’s championship”.

The purists will say, “Well we’ve done ok. We’ve punched above our weight since 1896 and we will continue to do so”.

Highly unlikely. Those times have gone. In the distant past, when the only seriously competitive Olympic nations were the US, Germany, Russia and China, we had a shot – we could compete because we worked hard, worked together and worked smart. Our culture (i.e. a tough, hard land), our isolation (i.e. we could develop our own way of doing things) and our people (i.e. resilient, tough,  and confident) gave us an edge that allowed us to be competitive in any sport we decided to get serious about.

Now with the growth in funding and expertise in high performance sport in the UK, France, Italy, Spain, South Africa, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, Sth Korea, Brazil and many other nations, the chase for Olympic gold is much much tougher than at any time in the past and our chance of sustaining our place as a leading Olympic nation is slimmer than a supermodel on an all celery diet.

So – and this unashamedly aimed at my friends, colleagues and foes in Australia…what are you going to do about it?

We’ve all had the “coffee conferences” over the past year – we are all experts – “You know the Government should do” and “You know what Crawford needs to come up with” and “You know what the sports should be doing” – well forget all that – the question is what are YOU going to do!

Will you sit back, read the report, accept that the “golden days” of  high performance sport in Australia are over and just watch as we fall quickly downhill to become just a minor, mediocre, medal-less nation for the next 30 years OR…….

Will you personally take some real responsibility and accountability and – regardless of what Crawford says – ensure that you out think, out work and out innovate anyone in your sport, anywhere in the world – everyday.

• Hard work costs nothing;
• Innovative thinking does not need money;
• Attitude couldn’t care less about funding;
• Passion is free;
• Confidence comes complimentary;
• Enthusiasm does not need dollars.

No matter what comes out of the Crawford report, as individuals and as a nation we must continue to strive for excellence in everything we do everyday.

And for one reason above all others….Australian athletes deserve it.

Kids with talent do not care about politics. They don’t give a damn about funding. They couldn’t care less about Crawford’s report.

They want an environment which provides them with the opportunity to express their full potential on the world stage….and we must ensure they get it.

Let me know what you think:

a. Should be in the Crawford report and;

b. What you believe it will actually contain.

Whatever it contains, there is the smell of change in the air………………..

Wayne Goldsmith