Anger mounts over Olympian's taking Stilnox

The knives are out for the Olympic swimmers who took the banned drug Stilnox 10 days before the London Olympics. The much loved Dawn Fraser, who has been voted Australia's greatest female sportswoman, pulls no punches.

Fraser told AAP at an awards ceremony in Parliament House, Canberra - where she was voted Australia's greatest female sportswoman of all time - that Australia was being pressured all around the world to punish known drug takers.

"And we have now come up with names of athletes who have taken drugs and swimmers in particular," the 75-year-old said on Wednesday night.

"Those people who take drugs in sport should be banned forever, not to ever be allowed to come back into sport ... especially in this example.

"They should be punished severely because they are setting a bad example for the younger generation for our country." more

Also, artist Ben Quilty has written a strong piece saying the same thing as I suggested a while back; that sports people should pay HECS fees just like everyone else. 

Everyone pays HECS: nurses, paramedics, teachers, artists; we all pay for our education. We also pay tax from prizes won: the Archibald, Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship, all literary prizes, film prizes, prizes for excellence in education and medical research. Even the Queensland Premiers' Literary Award was taxed, until it was axed. And I didn't whinge about being thrown into a higher tax bracket when I won the Whiteley Scholarship as a young artist until I realised that at the same time I was in Paris studying, the young emerging Olympians in Salt Lake City were there for free. In fact the prizes they would receive for winning were also tax-free, and so were their education and training. 

My Melbourne mate on radio argued lawn bowlers couldn't make a living after competing at the Olympics and therefore shouldn't have to repay any debt to the rest of us. I gently pointed out I didn't go to art school to make money, and that school teachers sure as hell weren't making much from their full HECS-incurring degree and years of hard, thankless work in the education system. Surely if Eamon Sullivan and James Magnussen studied for nothing, then my little boy's school teacher Ms O'Rourke should also have received education for free? 

I could see the headlines unfold last week as the men who embarrassed themselves in London on Stilnox and prank calls began the argument I've heard too many times before. It's always someone else's fault, the coach, team morale, always a lack of funding. When depression strikes them, inevitably someone says they need more money for therapy. Behaving well in the spotlight is a difficult thing to do for an excitable, testosterone-filled young man. Tell me about it! 

I have just finished a year of work with some of the quietest, most heroic and least celebrated young men I've met. We met in Afghanistan where I was sent as the official war artist for the Australian Defence Force. Many of them are suffering from serious depression; as many from post-traumatic stress disorder and suicidal thoughts. You can ask any of them if they feel they are receiving the financial support it takes to repair broken young men returning from Afghanistan and I challenge you to find one who will tell you that the Department of Veterans Affairs is over-funded. Someone needs to point out to our sporting heroes that the spotlight is harsh but that Afghanistan is harsher. In reality our sporting heroes live an overly supported, safe and often wealthy existence. It's time they found a real problem. more

Perhaps these London Olympics will be a bit of a watershed moment for sports funding? Seeing all those tax dollars converted into a bunch of spoilt brats taking a banned drug in a bonding session and whinging about everything hasn't gone down well at all here in Australia. What's more they lied about it, initially saying they hadn't taken anything. Not exactly the sort of example expected from those breathing the rarefied atmosphere of the sporting elite. I'd expect that people struggling through life against their own adversity were dumbfounded, as I was, that our Olympians were so immature and self centred. Giving them a free ride certainly doesn't help.

Their immaturity is staggering to see. Do they think that just a simple sorry is going to fix what they did over there? That we're all supposed to laugh it off with them when they say it was harmless fun? They took a banned drug FFS, at the highest level of sporting competition. Do they think a slap on the wrist will suffice?

I honestly hope the Australian Olympic Committee comes down hard on them. It would be the perfect opportunity to show younger athletes (and the world for that matter) that such behaviour won't be tolerated. Our future Olympians may actually view the Games as serious business, and not a romp in a playground. 

Update:

Swimming couch Nugent has been sacked. 

Two separate reviews following Australia's worst Olympic performance in two decades condemned swimming's culture and management.

They pointed to a failure of leadership and team culture when falling morale was not adequately addressed as the campaign failed to produce the results anticipated.

Nugent has previously said he regrets not following up complaints members of the men's 4x100m freestyle team had harassed female swimmers. more