It has been an emotional whirlwind for the Aussie elite gymnasts this past month! They thought they’d be competing in Rio this year but unfortunately they missed out on a spot in the Games and only placed in the test event. This was the first time in 30 years that Australia did not have a team compete in this event. Over the past several years, gymnastics has suffered due to a lack of support from government bodies as well as the general community. In the last year, The Australian Sports Commission invested a staggering 11 million dollars to swimming, 9 million to athletics and only 3 million are given to gymnastics.
For the majority of elite gymnasts here in Australia, they have to fund themselves in terms of paying for training, transport and even physiotherapy. This is very costly and places a strain on families by supporting them on this rigorous journey. However, this is not the case for countries such as America, China and Russia who are currently dominating this sport and have been for decades. These countries widely celebrate the sport and have very strong support networks in place.
If the lack of support around this sport continues, it is quite possible that gymnastics will continue to lose popularity and more Australians will continue to see a lack of Australian gymnasts competing at the Olympics. Wouldn’t it be upsetting to see absolutely no Australian gymnasts at the Tokyo Olympics?
But this campaign is completely changing this dire outlook. We will be exploring the current Australian gymnastics scene and drawing comparisons between other countries. Additionally, various physical and emotional benefits that the sport provides will be discussed. By increasing popularity of this sport, we will be able to encourage all Australians to go out and support or even participate in this spectacular sport.
-DZ
I really think they deserve more funding. A lot of the people involved in this sport that I know are very determined in other areas of their life which is great to see.
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Yes, I couldn’t agree more. Gymnastics does definitely teach you some valuable life skills that can help in other aspects of life!
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Honestly never knew there was such a big disparity between funding for different sports in Australia , which makes it really unfair for those amazing gymnasts. Would really be upsetting to see no gymnastics at all during the next Olympics.
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Thank you for sharing your opinion! Unfortunately sport funding within Australia is based of a ranking system. Sports that that have the potential for winning medals are provided with more funding. Hopefully gymnastics receives more funding before the next Olympics!
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[…] population constraints. We only had one gymnast that qualified for Rio, as mentioned in my previous blog post. Australia is a nation that is isolated from the rest of the world which it makes it difficult to […]
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What a shame Australia’s gymnastics team did not compete in the Olympics this year! It is very upsetting that gymnastics are receiving such little funding compared to other sports. We hope to see a change
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Yes, hopefully in the near future the Australian Sports Commission can figure out a more beneficial funding system for all sports so that sports like Gymnastics do not miss out on the funding they deserve! Thank you for your input.
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