Twenty-six years after Cathy Freeman won gold in the women's 400 metres at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, the former champion said home-soil success could still inspire a generation. "It was just a phenomenon," Freeman said at an event in Melbourne following the official launch of the 2032 Brisbane Olympics emblems. "When athletes are given that opportunity to compete on home soil, magic can happen."
But high-performance experts say that opportunity is at risk. Last month the ASC began cutting around 40 to 50 roles, including at the AIS, to account for a $15 million funding shortfall. The cuts represent roughly 10 per cent of the commission's almost 550-strong workforce.
John Fowlie, a high-performance expert, said the timing was dangerous. "To win at the Olympics, it's not an overnight thing. It takes six, seven years being with a coach to get onto the national team, make a push and finish on the podium. So there's no time between now and 2032 to take backward steps," he said.
The ASC performs a wide range of roles, including policy reform, financial and governance advice, training course design, management of high-performance centres, sports medicine research, coaching development and support for Australian teams at the Olympics, Paralympics and Commonwealth Games.