The real question is why the popular sports aren't in the Olympics. I know other countries have different tastes, but cannot imagine a culture where archery, horse prancing and diving matter. It is the Olympic movement that needs to think about its priorities.

Examinator

Sport does show up the ugliness in some parents and schools but it is trivial compared with music and the performing arts.

School bands and choirs...I can't add any more, the PTSD is flooding back and no, I didn't volunteer (well, not willingly).

Sport is for most students a welcome release from the classroom, but you are right, they are not playing for sheep stations (thanks to junior AFL for that one).

Sure, let the taxpayer fund it but make it more like a HECS scheme.

If they are serious about their "contribution" let them contribute to the cost.

If it's good enough for those who want to make a tangible contribution to our society by studying then it's good enough for those who seek personal glory and adulation via sport.

Dear Examinator,

It's $220 million that the Federal Government gives
each year to the Australian Sports Commission. And,
according to athletics officials that's an
embarrassingly small amount. They could be right,
as Australia's relatively weak performance in Beijing -
where Australia came a dismal sixth place on the
gold medal tally would indicate.

The country has to decide what it wants to do.
Whether to support sport seriously - with the Olympics
as the ultimate goal for athletes - or not. Schemes
similar to the student HECS scheme is worth
looking at as a means of funding,(the athletes should
pay back a reasonable share of government funding, once
they start earning a reasonable income).
There are also other alternatives to take the
pressure off the Federal Government.
Like Corporate sponsorships. With possibly better
planning and management, Australia could come up with
better ways to fund our athletes.

The Olympic Games provides Australia with the opportunity
to compete against the world's best athletes
and we've been doing it since 1896 in the spirit of
friendship and sportmanship.

I wonder if we were to ask athletes like - Ian Thorpe,
Stephanie Rice, Jodie Henry, Petria Thomas, Shane Gould,
not forgetting Dawn Fraser, Murray Rose, Betty Cuthbert,
and others - "Is Olympic Gold worth the cost?"
what would their answers be?

Sorry Examinator, I should have added failed would be's, in the sports haters, just for you.

Benk a bit of suburban prejudice there. Tell me a sport where some kids family can buy a bit of equiptment, [a slow race horse] for less than half the cost of a set of cheep golf clubs, & watch their kid win a gold medal with that equiptment, & i'll be impressed. You couldn't even get a swim suite for the cost of many horses. There are thousands at pony clubs every weekend.

Wobbles, why the nasty put down. Thousands of sports people compete for pleasure. Some want to find out, how good they are, with no thought of earning money, adulation, or glory from their sport. Many compete in national championships, as you never know if you don't compete against the best. It is usually the very best who try to help their competitors.

My experience is typical. I never recieved, or asked for, any government support. When I won a hundred quid, along with a state championship, the tax man was there just 2 days later, with his hand out.

After I showed him that my costs were 4,000 pounds that year, he decided that my sport was really only a hobby, & disapperaed very quickly.

Yes there are those who make lots, & yes they should contribute, just like uni graduates, [which many are], but the nasty attitude, shown here, is not really necessary.

Hasbeen,
I never really wanted to be, it was the pressure put on me by a conservative boarding school in Brisbane.

As I also said if people want it as individuals then they can pay.
But given that business is the primary winner in Olympics they should pay,not the taxpayer via the Govt, that was the point.

Foxy
Most of the old time greats were 'amateurs' a concept not acknowledged today.
That wanka from the Olympic Fed (the one that dumped the Greek girl to run the first torch link so his daughter could) told us that if we don't pay we won't win medals. Clearly the country who pays the most wins the most. How long since a small nation had multiple winners (perhaps Ethiopia).

How do you know that the Ivory Coast, Mozambique ,etc aren't represented simply because they can't afford the training facilities etc.

Thorpe and co would be for spending the money because they were clear beneficiaries.

In truth the Olympics has lost the the plot(ideal) its now simply big business and national posturing. No different to footy