Comments on: $40 million: it’s how much each gold medal costs us http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/08/08/40-million-its-how-much-each-gold-medal-costs-us/ now with extra source Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:17:19 +1100 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Rebecca http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/08/08/40-million-its-how-much-each-gold-medal-costs-us/#comment-4777 Rebecca Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000 #comment-4777 Does anyone else remember the 1970s - when Australians railed against the unfairness of state-sponsored teams like the Russians? Government financing and control of sport was seen as an evil thing, something anathema to the supposed Olympic tradition of competition over winning. <br /><br />Now here we are, three decades on, spending more per capita than anybody else, and if we don't win we moan about it. The whole thing's completely morally bankrupt, really. Let's pull all the "elite" funding and put it into university and community level facilities that will help regular Australians play sport, and maybe train to be world-class if they show enough promise. <br /><br />While we're bitching about the Olympics: can we put in place a rule that no competitor be under 21, or at least 18. Then we could get rid of the ritualised child-abuse/pedophilia that is current "women's" gymnastics, in which no woman who actually looks like a woman can possibly compete. It's an outrage. Does anyone else remember the 1970s - when Australians railed against the unfairness of state-sponsored teams like the Russians? Government financing and control of sport was seen as an evil thing, something anathema to the supposed Olympic tradition of competition over winning.

Now here we are, three decades on, spending more per capita than anybody else, and if we don’t win we moan about it. The whole thing’s completely morally bankrupt, really. Let’s pull all the “elite” funding and put it into university and community level facilities that will help regular Australians play sport, and maybe train to be world-class if they show enough promise.

While we’re bitching about the Olympics: can we put in place a rule that no competitor be under 21, or at least 18. Then we could get rid of the ritualised child-abuse/pedophilia that is current “women’s” gymnastics, in which no woman who actually looks like a woman can possibly compete. It’s an outrage.

]]> By: Liz Johnston http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/08/08/40-million-its-how-much-each-gold-medal-costs-us/#comment-4779 Liz Johnston Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000 #comment-4779 Close the AIS and put the savings into our schools and universities and kids' physical education and then we'd really have a country to be proud of and healthy kids as well. Close the AIS and put the savings into our schools and universities and kids’ physical education and then we’d really have a country to be proud of and healthy kids as well.

]]> By: cally http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/08/08/40-million-its-how-much-each-gold-medal-costs-us/#comment-4780 cally Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000 #comment-4780 Thankyou! Yes, looking forward to the Olympics, but not the nationalistic jingoism or the calls by John Coates for more money. Hey! lets put some of that $40m per athlete towards, oh I don't know, research into cancer, or diabetes or state school education (so they can afford to run p.e programmes with quality equipment) or hey, even better sports ovals and bike tracks for us plebs. Thankyou! Yes, looking forward to the Olympics, but not the nationalistic jingoism or the calls by John Coates for more money. Hey! lets put some of that $40m per athlete towards, oh I don’t know, research into cancer, or diabetes or state school education (so they can afford to run p.e programmes with quality equipment) or hey, even better sports ovals and bike tracks for us plebs.

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