Keeping the Green and Gold on the Podium

On 28 January 2011, the Minister for Sport, Senator Mark Arbib, spoke at the inaugural Australian Paralympic Committee President’s Sports Lunch. The title of his talk was Keeping the Green and Gold on the Podium.
The Australian Sports Commission website provided a summary of the speech and noted that “the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) will work closely with sporting organisations and State and Territory Institutes in the areas of high performance leadership and strategy.” The renewed focus on the AIS aims to create a network to utilise state sporting institutions more effectively.
As part of this changing focus, the AIS will develop a Green and Gold project into London 2012. The Australian Sports Commission’s website reports that:

• The Green and Gold project will see the Australian Sports Commission reallocate resources to provide targeted investment into Olympic sport where it will make the difference.
• It will enable our athletes the best possible training and preparation.
• It is about our athletes having better access to training, coaching, sport science and resources and facilities.
• The Australian Government’s goal is to increase our chances of medals at the London 2012 Games and ensure Australian athletes remain the envy of the world.

The Minister’s Media Centre did not have a copy of the speech at its website on 31 January and there were no links from the Australian Sports Commission’s website either. I hope to post links to the speech when it becomes available as it is a major policy initiative for Australian sport. (Postscript: Senator Arbib released information about the Green and Gold funding on 2 February.)
This is the year in which the AIS celebrates 30 years of existence. It celebrates at a time when the findings of the Crawford Report, the Government’s response to the Report (under a different Sport Minister, Kate Ellis) and discussions about the integrity of sport (report available here) are being re-focused under the direction of a new Minister for Sport.

Photo Credits
London Olympic Stadium
Olympic Park