Australia at The Winter Olympics - Infrastructure and Training

Infrastructure and Training

Although Australia has competed in every Winter Olympics since 1952, it was not until the late 1980s that the athletes were supported by institutionalised training, government infrastructure or sports science. Malcolm Milne's success prompted the eventual starting of the Australian Ski Federation by Geoff Henke in the 1980s, and with it, a program to sponsor talented young skiers and send them to Europe to hone their craft. The beneficiaries of this program included Lee, Zali Steggall, and aerial skiers Cooper and Marshall. In 1993, a training centre and base called Sonnpark was set up in Axams, near Innsbruck, Austria, a joint venture between the Australian and Austrian Olympic Committees for summer and winter sports. Colin Hickey said about Sonnpark "Yeah. It's great ... With that sort of back-up, we'd have given them a run for their money." Australia sold the base in 2002. After the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia (OWIA, initially called the Australian Institute of Winter Sports) was created. It was given a million-dollar annual budget; for the first time, Australia had a federal government–funded full-time winter sports training program to accompany the Australian Institute of Sport. This led to a steady rise in the number of Australians who won medals at World Cup events in the immediate years after the OWIA's creation. After the 2010 Olympics, the OWIA mooted plans to build a half-pipe course at Perisher in the Australian Alps, and a water jump in Brisbane for aerials freestyle training. In 2010, the OWIA's new training base, Icehouse, was opened in Melbourne. The largest facility of its type in the southern hemisphere, it features two large skating rinks and cost AUD58 million.

The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC, formerly the Australian Olympic Federation) is the peak body responsible for Australia's participation at the Olympics. Aside from funding the participation at the Olympics, the AOC provides money for the training and preparation of athletes. This occurs through their funding of the OWIA, grants for athletes to travel overseas to compete and the provision of monetary awards to athletes and their coaches if they win medals at World Cup events or World Championships in the lead up to the Olympics. The funding of the OWIA by the AOC varies by year, but hovers between AUD500,000 and 1,000,000, with a higher budget in the years immediately before an Olympics. Through the Australian Sports Commission, the federal government also sponsors OWIA, contributing more than half a million dollars a year. In 2009, the OWIA lobbied the government for an increase in its annual budget from AUD2.1m to AUD29.4m, a fraction of the AUD132m spent by Canada—the host of the 2010 Olympics. In contrast, the current funding for the Summer Olympics team is AUD128m per annum and the AOC asked for an increase of AUD108m annually in 2009. Australia aimed to win two medals in 2010, something that was achieved, and which Chesterman touted as justification for further funding to maintain and increase rankings in the face of growing expenditure by other countries.