Australian Track & Field: Is this The End???

Bumping for the sake of athletics in Australia!!

Track and field seems to be completely off the Aussie radar since Jana Pitmam and Cathy Freeman retired. I just don't think the Ocker public cares that much and it's too small a market for larger sponsors to be too interested in

What's the plan?

hold some major marathons with ok prize money, like 10k for the winner down to 1k for 10th and use all additional revenues to support the sport. By the way, as far as I know USATF doesn't give a dime to support athletes, either they have a sponsor or they are in the cold.

Some of it has to do with their lack of maturity on the men's national team. When your athletes are walking around a international hotel in only a towel with suspenders, and acting like complete douchebags, sponsors tend to want to distance themselves from you.

There were many prominent figures in the sport that were very unimpressed by the actions of the Aussies. Congrats boys!... You played a role in digging your own grave!

Maybe they'll go back to making their athletes pay for their own kits and travel like in the good old days. Tack on the shoe reps charging sponsored athletes for their gear and you have what we put up with in the 70's and 80's.

It is a sad state of affairs though.

Lottery Funding?

Crowne Plaza wrote:

Some of it has to do with their lack of maturity on the men's national team. When your athletes are walking around a international hotel in only a towel with suspenders, and acting like complete douchebags, sponsors tend to want to distance themselves from you.

There were many prominent figures in the sport that were very unimpressed by the actions of the Aussies. Congrats boys!... You played a role in digging your own grave!

Did you see this first hand or is this word of mouth? I would be interested to hear more about this, as here in Australia a massive shake-up of our Swim Team has occurred due to the males being 'out of line'.

The heads of the sport here in Australia have no idea how to promote the sport. Also, with only support to the best of the best athletes (Sally Pearson etc), the athletes who are on the brink of break through get left behind. I understand no one should get handouts, but when your sport is getting poor exposure mixed with negative action from the top, individual sponsorship becomes non-existent.

I still believe the best way to promote the sport is through gift-style racing. That way you have betting at the track, bars at the track and a general interest in the race. We all know who the fastest is, but never are quite sure if the fastest can catch a dude 30m ahead. Generates mass interest.

Australia sends full teams (or close to it) to World Championships....including World XC every year.

I think they should be more selective in who they send overseas.

Aussie sport in general has gone down the drain hasn’t it?

You used to have great cricketers, tennis players, swimmers - there seemed to be a sudden unaccountable decline in the once famous Aussie virility, competitiveness and masculinity.

Even your Shelia’s - not long ago they were queens of the pool.

You been watering down your Fosters?

Virginia Runner wrote:

hold some major marathons with ok prize money, like 10k for the winner down to 1k for 10th and use all additional revenues to support the sport. By the way, as far as I know USATF doesn't give a dime to support athletes, either they have a sponsor or they are in the cold.

I don't want to threadjack on the pros and cons of the USATF, but in addition to prize money for USATF championships, USATF directly funds athletes:

and sponsors the USA Running Circuit:

To get back to Australia, they have a great track and field tradition so I hope they can come up with new sponsor to replace the support.

the USATF Foundation supports athletes and clubs from youth to elite.

Yes, I saw this firsthand.

I also witnessed very snarky replies to questions, which resulted in the questioner making the athlete look very stupid... and obviously, he was.

They were quite unimpressive. But congrats to their 4x4, they ran well.

You are kidding, right? Australia does not send close to full teams. In fact, our standards are harder then those sets by the IAAF. Athletics Australia sets new standards, which is fine, but not when you fail to set a proper plan in the progression of athletes etc. Our national competition is piss-poor and the loss of QANTAS as a sponsor literally leaves Athletics Australia with a HUGE hole, next-to-no funding and no TV coverage.

Joe Binks wrote:

Aussie sport in general has gone down the drain hasn’t it?

You used to have great cricketers, tennis players, swimmers - there seemed to be a sudden unaccountable decline in the once famous Aussie virility, competitiveness and masculinity.

Even your Shelia’s - not long ago they were queens of the pool.

You been watering down your Fosters?

I think Australia went through a golden era where we dominated sports the rest of the world was only 'just discovering'...I use that term lightly. We became complacent and thought old ideologies and plans would suffice, but once other countires realised the gold-mine you can get in the pool, they stepped up their methods, leaving Australia dead in their tracks.

Is the world already tired of Michelle Jenneke?

Is Nic bedeau helpful or hurtful for some of our best athletes? Can you be an agent and coach and the de facto performance chair all at the same time?

Room with elephant wrote:

Is Nic bedeau helpful or hurtful for some of our best athletes? Can you be an agent and coach and the de facto performance chair all at the same time?

Nic Bideau has his pro and cons. Obviously he gets talented athletes and can get them to produce results. But this is only for one or two seasons. After that, they are injury-ridden and unsuccessful in international meets.

My favourite athlete at present is Collis Birmingham. I do not know who he is currently training with. The last I heard himself, Ryan Gregson and a few others created this club called 'The Ballarat Project', where hey all lived and trained together. I know Gregson got very fit from this after his string of injuries. Collis came 8th at World XC and hammered out some decent 5000m times. Not sure on the other training partners and if they this squad was guided by Nic Bideau.

On the Jeneke comment, she is young and hopefully can stay focused on the track and not be sidetracked by her fame off of it.

That has always been th mystery with Nic.

Who does he actually coach versus represent versus national team coaching assignments. Seems when you're running good, Nic is there. Otherwise, he just helps out?

USATF doesn't "fund" American athletes. But in Australia, if you can run the A-stand, you are basically on the World/Olympic team.

I know a lot of coaches do not like his philosophies and attitude towards athletes. Personally, I have never dealt with Nic. Like you said, you just never know what he is exactly doing. I did find a great document where it outlines his training principles and honestly it is nothing out of the ordinary. Training is hard, yes, but nothing an elite should not be able to handle.