Why is Australia so good at sport?

Even in the less popular OG sports, such as athletics, existing knowledge from passionate individuals has helped to develop our talent, often without reward.

Darren Clark, who finished fourth place in the OG 400m in 1984 and 1988, would avoid the benefits of being an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder to train in Sydney under Mike Hurst in a state that only commenced its own sports institute around late 1996.

Cathy Freeman, the 2000 OG 400m gold medalist, would fulfil her talent under a number of coaches from her school days, including her step father, her school coach under scholarship Mike Danila, the OG medalist Raelene Boyle, and Peter Fortune who coached her to OG medals.

Freeman's manager Nick Bideau also continues to have some global success with Australian runners with his Melbourne Track Club, which have included Craig Mottram (world championship 5000m medalist in 2003) and Stewart McSweyn who has placed in Diamond League 1500m races in 2021 and placed 7thin the Tokyo OG 1500m.

While international running success for Australia has been rare in recent decades, such passionate and knowledgeable coaches/managers continue to help our talented young athletes stay in such sports to maximise their potential, thus also contributing to Australians having ongoing interest in such sports.

With regard to sport's social contribution, and contrary to Tatz's 2017 sports article also declaring Australia to be a failed liberal democracy because of the "the treatment of Aborigines, immigrants, refugees, the homeless, the indigent, the aged and those on the poverty line", I argue that sport is a uniting social force that helps breakdown barriers while also producing international sporting stars.

We know how the exposure of Cathy Freeman and Patty Mills on the national and global sporting stage brings pride and attention to indigenous people, yet both carry themselves as uniting forces that do not denigrate the rest of Australia.

Cynics of sport should also note the invaluable role that school and volunteer coaches play in providing children of all ethnicities with opportunities to shine, as evident by the contribution of the sports teacher and local coaches to Peter Bol who ran a brilliant fourth in the 800m at Tokyo when watched by millions of Australians on television.

Of Sudanese background, although living in Australia from the age of four, Bol is proud to represent and inspire Australia, yet his success also gives greater poignancy to his 2020 words that "I don't think people should be seen as a refugee or a migrant or something like that … I think it's better if we have a better conversation, to get to know the person, instead of the assumptions".

It is such stories that demonstrate the beauty of international sport and how they contribute in a positive way to our evolving liberal democracy with Australian participants of very different ethnic backgrounds representing Australia in the many forms of sporting expression, despite old and new tensions always being evident.

Australian sporting success is also aided by having favourable weather conditions that allows most sports people to train all-year round, along with many having reasonable income and spare-time to develop their individual sporting prowess, whether solely as an individual or supported by family.

Hence, with most Australians living near the coast and enjoying access to many swimming pools, it is hardly surprising that Australia has consistently done well in swimming, surfing and sailing