SA Teams Getting a Mighty Hiding

[thestaggy]

This gives great insight into why the Aussies excel at pretty much everything they do ;

By 1980 a proposed blueprint for future success had been accepted; the government committed to provide long term funding to establish a national centre of excellence - the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) – to be built in the nation's capital, Canberra, close to the seat of government. There the nation's best coaches and athletes representing those identified sports at which Australians might reasonably be expected to become future world leaders, would be housed. They would be provided with the medical, scientific and technological support necessary to insure that they became the best in the world.A nationwide sporting talent identification program was initiated so that most Australian school children are now screened for sporting talent whilst still at school.The mission of the AIS became to provide a “world class training environment to support AIS athletes and coaches."

In the first four year cycle between 1980 and 1984, government provided the AIS with the equivalent of about R500 million (in current terms).This produced a steep increase in the number of Olympic medals won from 5 and 9 in 1976 and 1980 respectively to 24 at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.By 1996 funding increased to about R2.0 billion per 4 year cycle, reaching closer to about R3.0 billion prior to the 2000 Sydney Olympics at which Australian athletes won 58 medals, their largest haul.Interestingly there has been a linear relationship between the amount of money spent each year by Australian sport and the number of medals won in Olympic competition.The wisdom in the words of a former CEO of the AIS, Olympic marathoner Deek de Castella has been proven:“Money in equals medals out”.

The AIS offers scholarships to about 700 athletes in 35 different sports each year.Scholarship athletes have the opportunity to live and train at identified sporting campuses whilst in contact with coaching staff, medical personnel and sports scientists for up to 6 months at a time.These programmes are integrated nationally to insure that knowledge is shared across all sporting disciplines wherever located in the national structure.

Whereas the work of the AIS was initially focused exclusively in Canberra and covered only 8 sports, in the past 25 years there has been a progressive expansion of expertise to all the Australian states and to many more sports.Thus there are currently 35 sports for which athletes can receive scholarships and centres of specialization now exist in most of the major Australian cities.

In addition, each state has its own Institute of Sport at which expertise comparable to that originally found only at the AIS in Canberra can be provided to athletes training either at the centre of specialization in that state or as individual scholarship athletes.

The AIS currently employs 75 official coaches in the supported sports. These coaches are distributed across Australia.In addition, there has been a concerted effort over the past 20 years to improve the quality of the medical, scientific and technological support given to scholarship athletes.As a result, the international standing of Australian sports medicine and sports science has risen dramatically especially in the past decade. Many would consider that currently Australian sports physicians, physiotherapists and exercise scientists are amongst the very best in the world.They are also in demand around the world with a least 40 recently re-locating to England, the next country that has begun to follow the Australian model.

Outside of football, rugby and cricket here, no sport receives substantial backing and investment. Nations like China (and before them the USSR) and the US also use the Olympics as political tools, so for them there is even greater incentive to succeed. And politics aside, the US probably has the most highly developed developmental structures in the world thanks to the quality of the NCAA athletic programmes. Ask yourself how many athletes train in the US? Swimmers and tennis players from around the world train in the US. Most of your swimmers and tennis players will be found in the US. We simply do not have the structures in place to match these nations at the Olympics.

 

[JungleBoy]

I am pretty sure that we left some people behind who really do deserve to go to the Olympics. Bringing home medals hasn't meant much in the past for me, and I doubt that it will in the future. However, take the Rugby World Cup - that matters to me because I am a fan. I go through the ups and downs every year. But the Olympics? Nope, I don't know these people at all. I have no emotional investment.

I'm happy for the individuals who get somewhere but it sort of ends there. Perhaps, if I was a big hockey fan I'd care.

And there are some sports that are just so out there (IMHO). Watching paint dry seems to be more entertaining than womens' epee. And the judo? Yawn! But as I said - maybe being a fan changes your view.

And it is probably the fans that contribute to the class of athlete that we get.

Doesn't explain why our football is as crap as it is but I suspect that the blame with soccer is at the administrator level.

Yes you have a point about some events being pretty boring to watch. However, no matter what the event is, as long as there is a South African taking part, I will watch and cheer all the way. Some of the events I can't even make out how the scoring works

 

[Vox Populi Vox Dei]

This gives great insight into why the Aussies excel at pretty much everything they do ;









Outside of football, rugby and cricket here, no sport receives substantial backing and investment. Nations like China (and before them the USSR) and the US also use the Olympics as political tools, so for them there is even greater incentive to succeed. And politics aside, the US probably has the most highly developed developmental structures in the world thanks to the quality of the NCAA athletic programmes. Ask yourself how many athletes train in the US? Swimmers and tennis players from around the world train in the US. Most of your swimmers and tennis players will be found in the US. We simply do not have the structures in place to match these nations at the Olympics.

While I'm not disagreeing with you, it's quite interesting to note that both our gold medallists actually train in SA.

 

[AfricanTech]

I think that's idiotic.

Nice. Real mature of you there.

Consider the resources pumped into sending 15 people with little to no hope of progressing beyond the first round

 

[nivek]

First it was Banyana's dismal showing against Sweden and Canada (They lost both games 4 -1 and 3 -0)
Then the ladies Hockey team got trashed by Argentina ( 7-1). The men's hockey team also got thrashed by Australia (6 -0).
My problem is these are team sports and probably use up the majority of the budget and yet don't seem to have any hope of achieving any silverware. Maybe we need to re-focus our attention on individual events. It will cost less and they will have more resources for intensive preparation. What do you guys think?

wonder what massive salaries SASCOC officials take home

 

[AfricanTech]

Okay, having read through more of the posts, I'll modify - we should not send teams who have no realistic hope of making it past the first round.

And we should not (no disrespect to their dedication) send amateur teams - its a waste

 

[thestaggy]

First it was Banyana's dismal showing against Sweden and Canada (They lost both games 4 -1 and 3 -0)
Then the ladies Hockey team got trashed by Argentina ( 7-1). The men's hockey team also got thrashed by Australia (6 -0).
My problem is these are team sports and probably use up the majority of the budget and yet don't seem to have any hope of achieving any silverware. Maybe we need to re-focus our attention on individual events. It will cost less and they will have more resources for intensive preparation. What do you guys think?

For the period 2010/11 SASCOC(K) was given a budget of R17 million. SA Hockey was given R940,000 out of that for BOTH men and women. That money is also "ring-fenced", meaning it has to be used in a certain manner, and the primary area that money is put is in grass-roots development. After long-term sponsor Spar withdrew their funding, SA Hockey nearly went bankrupt in 2009 and had to beg for a grant from the National Lottery Board to make it. During 2009 the SA men's team had to pay their way to attend a training camp - R10,000 per player out of their own pockets - and they had to turn to ex-players to help source another R220,000 to fulfil their financial obligations as an association.

If you follow hockey you'd also be aware that it suffers more than any other sport with regards to our wonderful political interference in sport. The notorious 2000 Olympics when the men were blocked from attending for being to light? This political interference is also believed to have a hand in the tiny budget it receives and the way the association has to beg for more when times get tight, as they did in 2009. This also impacts sponsors, as who wants to put money into something when there's a chance they may not play?

In the lead-up to the this years Olympics financial support to SASCOC(K) was ramped up to R35 million over 2011/12, twice as much as for the previous period, BUT, our awesome minister of sport went and blew R46 million on the SA Sports Awards, a sum that was discovered to have been part of a far more impressive R73 million earmarked for the Olympic buildup. Yes, 60% of our Olympic budget went on a party. Only in South Africa.

By comparison, the Australian government pumped R3 billion into Australian sport in the four-year period (1996-2000) leading upt to the 2000 Games. Who knows what they spend now, but we get the idea. Granted SA cannot afford that, but it puts it all in perspective

SA Hockey still has no sponsor. One small relief being that Mr. Price offered to supply kits for free, albeit with no financial compensation, as is the norm in sporting apparel deals.

As we can see, in general, SASCOC(K)'s budget is limited and hockey does not get a huge slice of it. This is worsened by SASCOC(K) being a bunch of, well, cocks. Political wrangling has also done a fine job of harming hockey as well. I can only imagine it is the same, if not worse for other, lesser sports.