Australia Games chief slams poor government funding

Australia's Olympic chief has criticised the government for dithering over a review into Games funding and reiterated his demand for bigger budgets to arrest a potential slide down the medal standings.

Australia won 46 medals at last year's Olympics in Beijing, including 14 golds, to finish fifth on the overall medals table and sixth for golds.

It was the country's third biggest haul, behind Sydney in 2000 and Athens four years later.

Australia Olympic Committee (AOC) president John Coates protested that a government-commissioned review into Olympic funding, reportedly on the Prime Minister's desk, had dragged on too long and delayed badly needed funding to athletes.

"It has been frustrating for the AOC and our member sports that this process has taken this period of time after the Beijing Games," Coates told Australian media yesterday.

"Being so close to the (2010) Winter Games will make it virtually impossible for those athletes to benefit from extra funding."

Olympic officials have already asked the government to deliver A$100 million ($92 million) more a year for the next three years on top of the budgeted A$140 million annually.

Coates said Australia had already slipped to seventh in Olympic standings, behind Germany, France and Britain, citing a regular AOC benchmark study.

"It is no fluke the countries investing money in their athletes - Germany, France, Great Britain and Italy are either ahead of us or not far behind," Coates said.

"History shows we have a drop-off in the immediate years after an Olympic Games. It happened after Atlanta, Sydney and Athens, and then we recover.

"But the study highlights a steady decline in the number of medals won over the past decade and that is a major concern."

Australia would need to rack up 55 medals to keep its targeted top five position at the London Games in 2012, Coates said, and was currently "a long way off" the mark.

"It is way too early to start writing us off just yet," he said.

"Subject, of course, to (the report) recommending and the government providing the necessary funding to our athletes."