❓ Question regarding the Liberal-National government's support for current and future Western Australian elite athletes, answered by outlining funding programs, WAIS investment, and highlighting athlete achievements.
AnsweredQoN 420Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
WESTERN AUSTRALIAN ATHLETES — STATE
GOVERNMENT SUPPORT
420. Ms A.R. MITCHELL to the Minister for Sport and
Recreation:
Before I ask my question, I acknowledge the students of
Wanneroo Senior High School from the member for Wanneroo's electorate
who are in the Speaker's gallery.
Minister, like most Western Australians I am looking forward
to catching up on some sleep after a remarkable Olympic Games in London. Can
the minister outline to the house how the Liberal–National government
is supporting the current crop of Western Australian elite athletes, and, more
importantly, our next generation of aspiring Olympians?
GOVERNMENT SUPPORT
420. Ms A.R. MITCHELL to the Minister for Sport and
Recreation:
Before I ask my question, I acknowledge the students of
Wanneroo Senior High School from the member for Wanneroo's electorate
who are in the Speaker's gallery.
Minister, like most Western Australians I am looking forward
to catching up on some sleep after a remarkable Olympic Games in London. Can
the minister outline to the house how the Liberal–National government
is supporting the current crop of Western Australian elite athletes, and, more
importantly, our next generation of aspiring Olympians?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for Kingsley for the question; she is a
great supporter of sport in Western Australia.
I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on the
performances of our wonderful local athletes and touch on some of the
challenges facing elite sport as we head towards Rio in 2016. Just quickly, we
sent a team of 45 Western Australian athletes to the London Olympic Games,
making up 11 per cent of the total Australian Olympic team of 410 athletes. We
always aim to send 10 per cent; we sent around 11 per cent.
WA was represented across 17 of the 26 Olympic sports that
the Australian Olympic Committee sent teams for. Of the 45 WA athletes who
competed in London, 40 were directly funded and supported through the Western
Australian Institute of Sport, with 28 of those making their Olympic debut.
Something I am pretty proud of is that 20 per cent of WA's 45 London
Olympians are from regional Western Australia.
We often measure the success of our athletes on the world
stage by the number of medals they achieve, but I think although we achieved
medals in these Olympics, we also achieved some outstanding performances. Well
done to the member for Albany—himself a former Olympian—who I
thought spoke well on the radio the other day when he reflected, as I have
done, on our athletes' enormous achievement in simply making it to the
Olympics, let alone achieving a personal best, making an Olympic final or
actually winning a medal.
I would like to briefly highlight some of the performances of
our athletes. Congratulations to Blair Evans on winning a silver medal as a
member of the women's 4x200 metre freestyle relay team in the sport of
swimming. Congratulations also to Tommaso D'Orsogna, of course, for
winning bronze as a member of the men's 4x100 metre medley relay team
in the sport of swimming; Gemma Beadsworth and Glencora Ralph were important
members of the bronze medal–winning women's water polo team,
which faced a fair bit of pressure at the end there; and Fergus Kavanagh did
local hockey proud. There are others—I will not go through the details:
Todd Skipworth and Ben Cureton in rowing, and Scott Sunderland in cycling. I
will mention Kynan Maley, who qualified for the final of men's Cl
slalom canoe and finished sixth, despite being ranked outside the world top 40;
that was a fantastic effort. Lauren Mitchell just missed out. I also mention
Sarah Tate, nee Outhwaite, a former WA athlete who won silver in the rowing
pairs.
Although these results are really commendable, we want to
make sure we can continue to deliver, so the government has made, I think,
significant investment in sport at the grassroots level; we need to invest at
the grassroots level to build a base to get that talent into the area. The $7 million
funding is through the organisational sustainability funding program, which
funds all sporting associations. I will not go through Sport 4 All and
KidSport, which I think all members are aware of, but KidSport has been highly
successful. As I think the Premier said on radio this morning, I certainly look
forward to the day when we see one of those youngsters who has been involved in
that program being selected to be an Australian Olympian—it will be a
fantastic day.
We announced $31.73 million in the
last state budget for the WAIS high performance centre, having already
committed $2 million towards that. That will significantly help. It will have a
brand-new improved strength and conditioning gymnasium; a multipurpose training
area with recovery and rehabilitation areas; an indoor runway and pole vault
facilities; and, importantly, sports science laboratories and a high
performance research centre, which I think will greatly assist in that extra
one per cent that Steve Lawrence talks about. It is also interesting, with the
Paralympics coming up, that the new building will resolve the access issues we
have at the moment for disabled athletes. It is anticipated that this project
will be completed in late 2014, which will be perfect timing for the next
Olympic cycle. The state government is currently working closely with WAIS to
ensure that it is well resourced for the next Olympic cycle to ensure that the
community and the WA public gets absolute value out of the investment we are
making in that area of sport.
I would like to finish by saying
that I think we have done really well, and I think we have unearthed some new
young athletes who will benefit greatly from the experience. I just want to
acknowledge our WAIS people—Steve Lawrence and his people down there.
Steve does a fantastic job, and the board is well led by Grant Boyce. They work
tirelessly, and they will certainly be looking forward to Rio, and of course
the Commonwealth Games in between, and seeing continuing great performances
from our WA athletes.
great supporter of sport in Western Australia.
I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on the
performances of our wonderful local athletes and touch on some of the
challenges facing elite sport as we head towards Rio in 2016. Just quickly, we
sent a team of 45 Western Australian athletes to the London Olympic Games,
making up 11 per cent of the total Australian Olympic team of 410 athletes. We
always aim to send 10 per cent; we sent around 11 per cent.
WA was represented across 17 of the 26 Olympic sports that
the Australian Olympic Committee sent teams for. Of the 45 WA athletes who
competed in London, 40 were directly funded and supported through the Western
Australian Institute of Sport, with 28 of those making their Olympic debut.
Something I am pretty proud of is that 20 per cent of WA's 45 London
Olympians are from regional Western Australia.
We often measure the success of our athletes on the world
stage by the number of medals they achieve, but I think although we achieved
medals in these Olympics, we also achieved some outstanding performances. Well
done to the member for Albany—himself a former Olympian—who I
thought spoke well on the radio the other day when he reflected, as I have
done, on our athletes' enormous achievement in simply making it to the
Olympics, let alone achieving a personal best, making an Olympic final or
actually winning a medal.
I would like to briefly highlight some of the performances of
our athletes. Congratulations to Blair Evans on winning a silver medal as a
member of the women's 4x200 metre freestyle relay team in the sport of
swimming. Congratulations also to Tommaso D'Orsogna, of course, for
winning bronze as a member of the men's 4x100 metre medley relay team
in the sport of swimming; Gemma Beadsworth and Glencora Ralph were important
members of the bronze medal–winning women's water polo team,
which faced a fair bit of pressure at the end there; and Fergus Kavanagh did
local hockey proud. There are others—I will not go through the details:
Todd Skipworth and Ben Cureton in rowing, and Scott Sunderland in cycling. I
will mention Kynan Maley, who qualified for the final of men's Cl
slalom canoe and finished sixth, despite being ranked outside the world top 40;
that was a fantastic effort. Lauren Mitchell just missed out. I also mention
Sarah Tate, nee Outhwaite, a former WA athlete who won silver in the rowing
pairs.
Although these results are really commendable, we want to
make sure we can continue to deliver, so the government has made, I think,
significant investment in sport at the grassroots level; we need to invest at
the grassroots level to build a base to get that talent into the area. The $7 million
funding is through the organisational sustainability funding program, which
funds all sporting associations. I will not go through Sport 4 All and
KidSport, which I think all members are aware of, but KidSport has been highly
successful. As I think the Premier said on radio this morning, I certainly look
forward to the day when we see one of those youngsters who has been involved in
that program being selected to be an Australian Olympian—it will be a
fantastic day.
We announced $31.73 million in the
last state budget for the WAIS high performance centre, having already
committed $2 million towards that. That will significantly help. It will have a
brand-new improved strength and conditioning gymnasium; a multipurpose training
area with recovery and rehabilitation areas; an indoor runway and pole vault
facilities; and, importantly, sports science laboratories and a high
performance research centre, which I think will greatly assist in that extra
one per cent that Steve Lawrence talks about. It is also interesting, with the
Paralympics coming up, that the new building will resolve the access issues we
have at the moment for disabled athletes. It is anticipated that this project
will be completed in late 2014, which will be perfect timing for the next
Olympic cycle. The state government is currently working closely with WAIS to
ensure that it is well resourced for the next Olympic cycle to ensure that the
community and the WA public gets absolute value out of the investment we are
making in that area of sport.
I would like to finish by saying
that I think we have done really well, and I think we have unearthed some new
young athletes who will benefit greatly from the experience. I just want to
acknowledge our WAIS people—Steve Lawrence and his people down there.
Steve does a fantastic job, and the board is well led by Grant Boyce. They work
tirelessly, and they will certainly be looking forward to Rio, and of course
the Commonwealth Games in between, and seeing continuing great performances
from our WA athletes.
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