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Brent Espeland and Sarah Cook. Photographer: Peter Hislop
by Brent Espeland AM, Acting Chief Executive Officer Australian Sports Commission
Presented at Manning Clark House Weekend of Ideas "Australian Passions, the Arts and Sport", 14-15 March 2009
The story is now well known - Matthew Mitcham's near perfect last dive winning him a brilliant come from behind Gold medal at the Beijing Olympic Games and in doing so, destroying a clean sweep of all diving medals by the highly disciplined Chinese team. The dive was the highest single-dive score in history ' a result of meticulous practice, and precise execution of a complex combination of physical movements... under pressure, when it counted.
As is the case for a world class dancer, musician or even actor, a gold medal winning athlete like Mitcham can make a highly complex skill look effortless and even beautiful. In doing so it makes us feel good about witnessing it. But as we all know, there is a lot behind the scenes that goes into creating such a moment and such a result.
Mitcham was a self-described 'non-athletic kid'... more of a 'free spirit'. Diving in Australia is a small sport without a large participant base and as a result has what we call and very small 'talent pool'. The sport relies on the identification or finding of talent and 'transfer' of talent from other sports. Mitcham was a good example of this. He was involved in trampolining from a fairly young age ' at first not as a sport, but as a means for expressing his free-spiritedness and having fun at the same time. His dedication, talent and flare was obvious from early on and he actually won a world junior title in trampolining. At about the age of 12 he was 'identified' by a diving coach as having potential and began competing in diving in addition to trampolining.
Matthew Mitcham then spent a number of years at the AIS diving program in Brisbane developing his skills and aiming for perfection, under the Chinese national head coach. After year off in 2006 due to 'burn out' and dealing with his well publicised personal issues, Mitcham changed direction and linked up with Mexican born diving coach Chava Sobrino at the New South Wales Institute of Sport program. His natural flare and creativity flourished under Chava's more flexible style. The result was that the physical, technical and mental excellence all came together for that magic result in Beijing.
The strength of the Australian system is that it allows for different athletes and coaches and that the right combination of people with passion, knowledge and creative flare can defy the odds and rise to the highest echelons of sport. Triathlon is a very different sport to diving ' much less about aesthetics and skill and more about incredible physical endurance, hard work and big hearts. Emma Snowsill's Olympic Gold medal was less of a surprise, but her journey no less about the quintessentially Australian traits of coming back from adversity and finding a way to win that is not necessarily conventional. And again the Australian system of sport provided options that allowed Emma to flourish.
Unlike Matthew, Emma was a sporty kid, growing up on the Gold Coast and into the swimming and surf culture as well as dabbling in ballet, gymnastics, football, tennis, skiing, rowing, cross country and riding her bike. She reached a high level in swimming and did not start Triathlon until her late teens, becoming a little more serious when she finished school. In 2001 at age 19 Emma became one of the first ever Triathlon scholarship holders at the AIS. In her own words (taken from her website): Emma benefited greatly from specialised education in the highest standards of fitness, health, race training, physiology, sports nutrition, sports psychology, injury management, bike mechanics and national team spirit. But in 2002 Emma's long-time boyfriend was killed during a training bike ride. Emma witnessed the accident. It was a pivotal point in her career and for a time she thought she would not go on in the sport. Instead she decided to do what her boyfriend could no longer do and totally focus on being the best she could be.
She drew on her own inner strength and won the first of her three world championship titles in late 2003, missed the 2004 Olympics, but won world champs again in 2005 and 2006. Coached by her fianc' Craig Walton (also a former elite triathlete), Emma handled the pressure of expectation beautifully to dominate the women's triathlon event in Beijing.
Despite a history of supremacy by Australian women on the world triathlon scene, Emma was the first to win an elusive Olympic gold medal for Australia. Interestingly also despite the history of world beating Australian female triathletes, Emma did not try to emulate and has very much done things her way with an attitude of purity of performance. She does not worry about what anyone else does or has done. Her sole aim is to absolutely maximize her own performances, taking herself physically and emotionally to a level no one else has been to before.
Matthew and Emma's gold medals were just two of the 14 Gold medals, won across 7 different sports in Beijing. Over the last 3 Olympic Games (Sydney, Athens and Beijing) Australia has won 47 gold medals across 15 different sports. In addition countless gold have been won in Paralympics, winter Olympics, Commonwealth Games, World Championships and other world standard events.
Despite Australia's great pedigree and success, gold medals are becoming increasingly hard to obtain. Over the last 30 years in particular, sport has increasingly become globalised, commercialised and a serious, professional pursuit, demanding ever higher levels of commitment and excellence. We talk about a 'Global sporting arms race' with Governments around the world now investing significantly to achieve sporting glory in order to reflect national health, pride and identity.
The Australian Sports Commission, as the Commonwealth Government's agency for sport in Australia has the responsibility of leading, funding and supporting the national organisations who deliver sport. One of our two key objectives is 'Excellence in sports performance by Australians'. To this ends we assist sports in their strategies and planning towards gold medal achievement. And sports are now highly accountable for the funding and support they get.
Diving and Triathlon are just two of the 54 sports that the Commission funds and supports. In addition funding, is provided to nine National Sporting Organisations for the Disabled as well as to the Olympic Winter Institute and to University Sport. The range of sports is diverse ' Olympic, non-Olympic, team and individual, large and small participant sports, target, technical, strength, endurance, combat, ball and the more artistic type sports.
Recent analysis has shown that many other nations spend significantly more on sporting success. But the strength of the Australian system is that we are flexible and in our approach to every sport. Unlike some other countries the 'production of champions' is not formula based and nor is our treatment and assessment of the sporting organisations themselves. Australian sport has always been characterised by the innovativeness, flare, determination and adaptability of the people involved. Australian sports people, including coaches and administrators are known for their unpredictability and even creativity in 'finding a way' to win ' often against the odds. And as a nation with a small population, that is geographically isolated, we have significant odds to overcome to be competitive.
The Commission works with every sport to determine their plans and strategies and help them develop athlete, coach and competition pathways that will give athletes the best possible opportunity for success. We also work with Sporting organisations on their infrastructure ' which includes everything from governance and management and development of personnel to competition venues and facilities.
A big part of the Australian sporting system is the national and state institute system, through which athletes receive coaching support, holistic career management support as well as cutting edge sport science and sport medicine support. Another key area in which the Sports Commission supports sport is through the National Talent identification program, which includes talent development and talent transfer and generally giving young sports men and women the opportunity to find the right sport for them and access to coaching and competition support. A related program is our national indigenous sport program, where we facilitate opportunities for indigenous athletes with relevant sports.
Finally great coaching is paramount to sporting success. It is very rare to find an athlete achieving at the highest level who is 'self-coached'. And when we do, they have always received excellent instruction at some stage of their career, which gives them the basis and the tools for future success. Development and support of high performance coaches is a very high priority area and is growing in professional opportunities.
To return to our earlier examples of sporting success, how the Sports Commission supports the strategy and operation of a sport like diving is very different to Triathlon, which is again different to bigger more structured sports like basketball, hockey, swimming or rowing.
Because diving, unlike many other sports, does not have a structured participation side to it, the national federation focuses all its efforts on developing athletes to achieve excellence at the Olympic Games. All strategy and planning is around the 'high performance pathway'. Talent identification and transfer is important for the sport. There are a very small number of coaches with the focus on three venues and programs ' AIS (Brisbane), NSWIS and VIS. There exists a very focused and intense environment, but with some flexibility in the different options available for athletes. The result has been a real culture of excellence and some outstanding achievements on the world and Olympic stage - especially for a sport that has such a low profile in Australia. Triathlon, on the other hand is a much more 'decentralised model'. There are a larger number of coaches who typically only work with a handful of elite athletes. The training and competition venues options are much more diverse and athletes spend a lot of time travelling the world training and competing professionally, often in small groups. Talent identification is less important as athletes reach their peak later, but most athletes transfer from a related sport. Sport science and medicine support is very important but delivery presents challenges as the athletes are not in a central venue. The AIS and National Team program aims to create an environment of support around the athletes, while maintaining the flexibility for athletes to do what they individually need to do to be successful.
A third and equally successful example is hockey. The national hockey program utilises everything the system has to offer ' every institute around the country; a highly structured and aligned pathway of athlete, coach and competition progression; indigenous talent ID program; sport science and medicine including sophisticated game analysis. Despite all this, the Australian hockey teams are not known for being the most highly drilled or structured team. Rather, again they are known for their passion and flare and creativity on the field.
The Australian sporting experience shows us time and time again that ultimately all the support, infrastructure, planning and even talent is not enough to win at the highest level. We often say that the 'art of sport' is the difference between good and great... and that is: the creativity, innovation and intuition of the people ' the ability of coaches and athletes to think outside the square and not be bound by convention. Even sport science, which has been a hallmark of the Australian system has an 'art' side to it ' Australian sport science is not rigid science. It is also strives to be flexible, adaptable and innovative. In Australian sport, as I think is the case in the Australian arts, talent and learning the basics is very important. But excellence is also about: vision, flexibility, adaptability, self-belief, the ability to maximise strengths & minimise weaknesses, passion, drive, mental toughness and a can do attitude.
To go win at the highest level in sport takes more than just physical and technical excellence. It also takes emotional 'human' excellence. Therein lies the art of sport which is where Australians excel and what makes our nation so successful at going for gold.