The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) has boosted funding for elite athletes training for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing to over five million dollars.

Athletes who win a gold medal at a world championship or other major international events of comparable standard in either 2006 or 2007 will receive $15,000 in one lump sum at the commencement of the following year.

Silver medallists will receive $10,000, bronze medallists $7,500 and in a new move 4th placegetters will receive $5,000.

“In order to remain competitive in Beijing and beyond we need to ensure appropriate incentives are in place for our best athletes” AOC President John Coates said. “We felt it necessary to include 4th placed athletes as we know from past experience that many of our Olympic medallists will come from this pool of athletes”.

“And members of teams will continue to receive the same funding as individuals”, Coates said.

The AOC had allocated $4,348,000 to the adidas Medal Incentive Funding (MIF) but under the guidelines approved by the Executive today athletes will be eligible to receive a total of $5,382,929.

An increase of $1,034,929.

Coaches also benefit from the new scheme. Funding for coaches has been set at 25% of what the medal-winning athlete receives.

ATHLETES
Gold: $15,000
Silver: $10,000
Bronze: $7,500
Fourth: $5,000

COACHES
Gold: $3,750
Silver: $2,500
Bronze:1,875
Fourth: $1,250

The AOC also increased its MIF to the same amounts for athletes preparing for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver.

The AOC plans to maintain MIF at this level for the following four years leading up to the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

“Now we are at this funding level there is no going back” Coates said. “Our Executive is well aware that other nations have increased funding to their athletes and sports to record levels and we are being challenged to maintain our position in the top five on the overall Olympic medal tally”.

The latest benchmark study conducted by the AOC indicates Australia would finish fifth on the overall medal tally if the Olympic Games had been held this year. The figures show Australian athletes winning 40 medals, 15 gold, 13 silver and 12 bronze, a sharp fall from 2005 when they won 50 and the 2004 Olympics in Athens, when Australia was 4th with 49 medals.

“This is with the benchmark events in women’s judo, modern pentathlon, tennis and volleyball men and women still to be held and based on the latest world rankings in athletics and swimming with rankings at end year to be finally included. While these events and the final athletics world rankings are unlikely to result in any significant change, we are expecting some improvement in our swimming world rankings (currently 6 firsts, 5 seconds and 3 thirds) at the Australian Team trials in December for the 2007 World Swimming Championships in Melbourne” said Coates.

“Conversely, it is possible that the Chinese and Japanese swimmers will improve their world rankings at our expense at the Asian Games in December in Doha. We’ll just have to wait and see” said Coates.

“In some sports the decline may be due to the timing of this year’s Commonwealth Games”, Coates added. “But it is essential we reverse the trend in 2007 and the increased funding is paramount to our success in Beijing”.

For the new Programs and Funding Guidelines for sports on the program for the 2008 Olympic Games click here>>>

AOC