Sporting Excellence
Sport in Australia is more than just a pastime. It plays a major role in shaping the country’s identity and culture, so much so that sport is often referred to as ‘Australia’s national religion’.
Sport occupies a central position in Australian life. It is a source of health and enjoyment for millions who participate as players, coaches, officials, administrators and spectators, the vast majority of whom do so in a voluntary capacity. As an industry, sport contributes significantly to the Australian economy. Within the Australian community, sport also provides a strong and continuous thread through a diverse and widespread population. In short, sport is a binding element in the social and cultural fabric of Australia.
Australia, for its small population and remoteness of location, continues to confound the world with its achievements on the international sporting stage. This position has been reached by the development of a comprehensive and effective national system that encourages sport and physical activity for all Australians and creates opportunities to enable those who are talented and motivated to reach their potential. This system has evolved with the strong support of the Australian government, state and territory and local governments, the private sector and sporting organisations at all levels.
Almost 70 per cent of Australians aged 15 years and over participate at least once a week in physical activity for exercise, recreation and sport.
The Australian sports system is unique and one of the most successful in the world. Sporting institutions across the globe emulate Australian programs, and Australian coaches and sports administrators are employed by many organisations and countries around the world.
Australian Sports Commission
The Australian Sports Commission plays a central leadership role in the development and operation of the Australian system, administering and funding innovative sports programs in line with Australian Government policy. Since its establishment almost 20 years ago, the commission has earned a national and international reputation for its innovative, quality programs and for the successful delivery of those programs.
Programs range from building participation in targeted communities and promoting ethical sporting practices on and off the field to enforcing Australia’s commitment to keeping sport free of prohibited drugs. The commission also works with national sporting organisations to ensure there are clear pathways from community sport to elite performance.
Australia’s elite athletes have been at the forefront of international competition. They regularly compete and win in a range of sports on the international stage. This is exceptional given Australia’s relatively small population, isolation and lower level of investment than other OECD countries. Australia’s sporting excellence is due to a combination of factors: the professionalism of Australian sporting bodies in preparing and developing elite athletes; the technical expertise of the Australian Institute of Sport and state and territory sporting institutes and academies; the existence of a strong domestic sporting base; and the development of international standard coaching and support services.
Australian Institute of Sport
The internationally renowned Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a world-leading centre of excellence for the training and development of elite athletes and coaches. The AIS opened in 1981 and is a major division of the Australian Sports Commission. With its world-class coaches, sport scientists, sports physicians and state-of-the-art facilities, it is Australia’s national centre for sporting excellence and the training and development of elite athletes and teams.
The AIS originally offered scholarships in eight sports. Today, it provides scholarships to more than 700 athletes competing in 26 sports. Scholarship holders excel at Olympic and Paralympic competitions and have also become world champion cricketers, netball and rugby union players, American National Basketball Association basketball players, English Premier Soccer League starters and Grand Slam tennis players. Ten members of Australia’s 2006 FIFA World Cup team were AIS graduates.
Australia’s Olympic presence
Australia is one of only two nations to have competed at every Summer Olympic Games and all but four Winter Games in the modern era. Australia’s total Olympic and Paralympic medal count is 1310 (426 gold), which, given the country’s population of around 20 million, puts us near the top on the list of the world’s most successful sporting nations. Australia has finished fourth on the medal tally at the last two Olympic Games, winning more gold medals than ever before in Athens, and was the first country to maintain its position on the medal tally after staging a home Olympics (Sydney 2000). Australia finished first in the medal tally at the Paralympics in Sydney and a very creditable second in Athens.
Australia’s sporting heroes
Some of Australia’s best-loved heroes are also sporting legends. Almost 60 years since he played his last test, cricketer Sir Donald Bradman’s batting average is still the best in the world by far. Tens of thousands of Australians lined the streets of Adelaide in 2001 as the funeral cortege for ‘the Don’ passed by.
When Catherine Freeman stood on the start line in the 400 metres at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, the expectation and hope of the entire nation rested on her shoulders. As she crossed the line in first place, the home crowd erupted. She has become a living legend and a role model for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
Ian Thorpe is Australia’s greatest ever Olympian. During a relatively short career, he broke 22 world records, won 11 World Championship titles, five Olympic gold medals and 10 Commonwealth Games gold medals. Since his retirement in 2006, swimming has moved from first to second place on the list of Australia’s most popular sports.
Cyclist Stuart O’Grady is an Olympian three times over (he won a gold medal in the Madison at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games) and a nine-time Tour de France competitor. Once an AIS scholarship holder, O’Grady recently created an Australian junior development cycling team.
Sports research
Australia’s reputation as world leader in scientific research flows through to sport, where specialists work in areas such as performance analysis, biomechanics, physiology, sports medicine, nutrition and physical therapies to help improve the performance of Australian athletes and teams in specific sports. Not only do these sports science and medicine programs help to win medals, but the benefits flow through to non‑target sports and to sports performance at all levels.
The AIS’s Applied Research Centre is responsible for expanding research across the diverse disciplines that comprise the Sports Science and Sports Medicine departments of the AIS. In addition to conducting in-house research, the Applied Research Centre is the vehicle for negotiation with potential collaborators and funding agencies, as well as for promotion of innovative achievements. It has enjoyed enormous success on this front, cooperating with universities, centres of excellence, business, sporting organisations and notably the Cooperative Research Centre for Microtechnology and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.
Recently, National ICT Australia (NICTA), Australia’s centre of excellence for information and communications technology, and the Australian Sports Commission entered into a cooperative research program to develop technologies for sporting applications. The collaboration between the two organisations includes work on projects such as rowing and swimming.
In the rowing project, AIS scientists worked with researchers from NICTA’s Wireless Signal Processing Program to improve the capability for the transmission of wireless information from a small unit on a rower’s boat to a device a coach can use to interpret the information. The wireless transmission of this information is inherently difficult because the signal needs to be sent in real-time, close to the water’s surface and over a considerable distance. The research teams have worked together to improve the data transmission rate and range of these devices.
The swimming project combines the expertise of researchers from the AIS’s Aquatic Testing, Training and Research Unit and NICTA’s Wireless Signal Processing and Systems Engineering and Complex Systems Programs. The project also involves the transmission of data, this time from a swimmer to a device at the side of the pool, to provide important information on the effect of hand movement on the swimmer’s performance.
International use of Australian facilities
The expertise and leadership role provided by the community within the AIS has benefited international athletes and sports industries. International coaches, sports scientists and sporting teams regularly visit the AIS to view and train at the facility. The world’s fastest swimmer, American Michael Phelps, fresh from world-record-breaking performances at the 2007 World Swimming Championships in Melbourne, spent time with scientists and technicians at the AIS in April 2007. Phelps, along with American teammates Ryan Lochte and Katie Hoff, and Australian swimming champions Grant Hackett, Brenton Rickard and Alice Mills, participated in the testing of Speedo’s current FS Pro fast skin suit. Speedo’s decision to conduct much of its testing at the AIS’s recently completed $7 million testing pool and recovery complex reinforces the institute’s reputation as arguably the world’s best athlete training and development centre.
Sports development assistance programs
Australia has long recognised the role of sport in personal and community development at home and abroad. In recent years, the Australian Government—via AusAID and the Australian Sports Commission’s International Relations Division—has invested heavily in programs that focus on sport for development, particularly in the Pacific region.
These programs enable Australia to showcase its elite and community-based sporting skills and coaching and administration capacities. They provide opportunities for men and women working in the sports industry to advance their skills and share their knowledge with their international counterparts.
Further information
This fact sheet is also available to download ( PDF)
Note: Unless otherwise stated, all dollar amounts are in Australian dollars.
last updated April 2008