Well it's starting to look pretty official; that we definitely are spending too much on Olympics medals for bugger all return. I note this is the 2nd article I've seen in the Sydney Morning Herald in the last 2 or 3 days critical of the amounts of money being pumped into our medal efforts. It seems the paper has taken up the cause:
AUSTRALIA'S performance at the London Olympics, its worst result in 20 years, has cost taxpayers $10 million for each medal won.
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The data reveals that the Australian Institute of Sport spent a record $310 million of public money on the Olympics campaign. Swimming, with one gold medal in the women's 4x100 metres freestyle relay, took nearly $39 million of that, over four years. Australia's swimmers won six gold medals in Beijing (2008) and seven in Athens (2004).
Its budget has almost doubled since 2009, in preparation for these Games. The last time Australia failed to win an individual swimming gold was at Montreal in 1976, when its feeble overall performance (one silver and five bronzes) led the Fraser government to pump money into the creation of the institute. Swimming Australia has ordered a review of this year's performance.
The athletics medals - Sally Pearson's thrilling hurdles gold and Mitchell Watt's gutsy long jump silver - cost the most, at $15.5 million. Cycling gets the same amount of money as athletics at $31 million. Its five medals were $6.2 million each.While spending on marquee sports such as swimming, athletics, sailing and rowing has in some cases doubled in recent years, the amount available for less visible sports has flatlined.
Link
There's a lovely interactive graphic there as well
I will honestly be glad when these games are over. All they seem to have done is piss me off.
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