Swimming Australia Comes Up Short on Funding for Top Athletes

In 2014, Australia was the top nation in Glasgow with a best-ever 57 Commonwealth Games medals (19 gold, 21 silver and 17 bronze); number two on the medal table in the Gold Coast with 28 total Pan Pacific Championships (10 gold, nine silver and nine bronze); and had swimmers put up performance that ranked number one in the world, two in the number two position, five at number three and 21 ranking four through eight.

With the number accomplishments coming over this past summer Swimming Australia should be riding high on its success, but instead it is now being reported that they cannot pay the swimmers the funding that they are owed based on their performances.

The Courier Mail is reporting that Swimming Australia will fall close to $300,000 short on an annual revenue of $26 million.

Swimmers who achieved a number one ranking were set to receive $15,000, a number two ranking $10,000, a number three rankings $5,000 and rankings between four and eight are owed $3,000. Cate Campbell, one of Australia’s most successful swimmers, is owed $40,000.

This comes on the tail of another controversy that reared its ugly head last month. After finally getting past the Stilnox and hazing scandals, the organization had to address the fact that for many years some of the top coaches in Australia participated in nights that involved strippers and pornography which occurred at several different coaching conferences.

This incident appears to have directly affected the situation they find themselves in when it comes to falling short on funding for their athletes.

After the incidents that occurred amongst the national team after the Olympics sponsors began to distance themselves from Swimming Australia, but with the fantastic results they have achieved over the last two years the organization was confident in their ability to once again attract more sponsorship dollars.

It was reported in the same Courier Mail article that they were in negotiations with a sponsor that would have been able to provide them with the necessary funds to cover the money owed to the swimmers, but the talks ceased once the news of the actions of the coaches became public.

Michael Scott, Swimming Australia’s High Performance Director, will be forced to announce this situation publicly next week when the organization reported a $4 million surplus in last year’s annual report.

The direct funding to the swimmers is not the only area that will be affected by the shortfall as the team for the World Short Course Championships has been cut from 30 swimmers to 20, according to the Courier Mail.

Part of the reason that Swimming Australia is short on funds is because they did not anticipate having to pay out as much as they need to in performances bonuses.

“Swimming Australia’s current financial position is strong and the high-performance budget has not changed or been reduced,” said Mark Anderson, Swimming Australia’s CEO told the Courier Mail.

“The Australian Swim Team’s international performances and rankings have taken a positive step forward over the last 12 months, with a number of athletes improving on their performance standard from previous years.”

“This is a tremendous step forward and provides us with some great challenges that we are currently working through. No decisions have yet been made as we assess all scenarios and their impacts.”

“As a result of these improved performance levels, the funding process will be reviewed to ensure the budget is allocated to maximum benefit across the entire athlete squad.”

Among the  $500 a night on accommodations for 90 swimmers and staff that attended the Commonwealth Games staging camp.