Australian Olympic Committee Asks Government For $1.3Bln To Prepare For 2032 Games - CEO

Australian Olympic Committee Asks Government for $1.3Bln to Prepare for 2032 Games - CEO

Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) CEO Matt Carroll asked the government for 2 billion Australian dollars ($1.3 billion) in financial support to prepare athletes for the 2032 Olympics in Brisbane and the 2026 Commonwealth Games

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th March, 2023) Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) CEO Matt Carroll asked the government for 2 billion Australian Dollars ($1.3 billion) in financial support to prepare athletes for the 2032 Olympics in Brisbane and the 2026 Commonwealth Games.

"Our analysis shows that, based on the forward estimates, there's a $2 billion shortfall in direct funding to sports across the ten years leading to Brisbane 2032," Carroll said in an address to the National Press Club, as quoted by the AOC website.

Carroll stressed that the current state of the AOC finances could only lead to deteriorating results for athletes, even without taking into account the additional pressure of preparations for the Olympics.

"Successive national sports plans over many years have not achieved their ambitions, because they have been funded to fail. On the forward projections based on the work we have done with our 44 Member Sports, Australian sport will fall over a financial cliff. Sports are fighting each other for a share of a cake that keeps getting smaller," Carroll added.

Carroll suggested declaring sports an Australian national priority, creating a stand-alone Department of Sport and developing a national strategy for sports events aimed at gaining benefits from hosting major sports competitions in Australia.

Australia is to organize two key sports events in the upcoming decade. On July 21, 2021 the International Olympic Committee announced Brisbane would host the 2032 Summer Olympics. On April 12, 2022, the Commonwealth Games Federation announced the Australian state of Victoria would organize the 2026 Commonwealth Games.