AOC/AIS & Olympic Sports Vow to Lift their Game in Rio

Representatives of the Olympic sports, including Equestrian Australia, the AIS and AOC attended a Road To Rio 2016 High Performance Forum in Sydney today and agreed to build a set of consistent values for the Australian Olympic Team. 

“The values need to be elevated into the consciousness of the entire Team well before Rio in 2016” Peter Conde, the Performance Director of Australian Sailing said. “We need a set of consistent values and build on them for the next three years”.

The Forum attendees also agreed:

·         There needs to be more communication between the National Sporting Federations, the AIS and AOC.

·         Better understanding of AOC Selection Policies.

·         Better education of “rookie” athletes going to the Games for the first time.

·         And a plan to overcome the environment in Rio. The heat, the traffic and security risks.

Richard Fox, National Performance Director of Canoeing suggested the 97 Australian medal winners at the London Games should form a leadership group to help those athletes attempting to qualify for Rio. “Engage the 97 medallists from London to form a 2016 leadership group” he said.

The AOC Director of Sport, Fiona de Jong, said “we are listening to our sports and we want to achieve solutions come 2016. The purpose of today’s Forum is to see what we can do better in Rio and what lessons we learned from London”.

“Our culture must be aligned to the Olympic values and we all have a role to play” she said.   

The AOC Secretary-General, Craig Phillips, said Rio “would be a challenging Games” because many of our athletes have not competed in Brazil. “It is not on the well trodden path for our athletes” he said.