WATER POLO AUSTRALIA WELCOMES AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF SPORT FUNDING COMMITMENT

Water Polo Australia has today welcomed news that the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) will continue its high performance funding levels for water polo for the 2021-22 financial year, to support our teams in the lead up to the Tokyo Olympic Games and springboard towards Paris 2024.

The funding provides clarity for WPA high performance programs for the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics as well as assists with planning for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games which are now only three half years away

WPA CEO, Richard McInnes, said today’s announcement from the AIS is welcomed news for the Australian women’s and men’s teams.

“To have our funding secured for our Australian women’s and men’s teams through until June 2022 provides us with a greater level of certainty to be able to put in place plans to give our team the best preparation for Tokyo and beyond.

“With the Tokyo Olympics postponed our high performance staff are not only focused on next year’s Games, which are just over 260 days away, but are also looking towards Paris 2024.

“While we grapple with so many unknowns around COVID in the lead up to Tokyo around travel and competition restrictions, the certainty with funding allows us to support our athletes, coaches and support teams to continue preparing,” he said.

AIS CEO Peter Conde said: “We’re in a unique situation where this current Games cycle has extended to five years, so we will only have three years between Tokyo and Paris.

“The AIS will continue discussions with sports with the aim of announcing the remainder of funding for the complete Paris cycle by December 2021.

“In the meantime, by giving sports high performance funding certainty through to June 2022, we are giving sports and athletes the best possible chance to succeed on the world stage at major upcoming international events.

“In addition to this funding announcement, the AIS also invests more than $18m a year in direct grants to sports through pathway funding for emerging young athletes and athlete wellbeing, while we provide more than $14m a year in direct grants to athletes to support their training and competition.”

Australian Sports Commission (ASC) Chair John Wylie said: “With sport investment funding, pathway programs and athlete income assistance, the ASC is directly investing $147 million in Australian high performance sport this financial year, up 37 per cent from the $107 million in 2012. The ASC is very proud to have driven such a substantial increase in AIS investment in sport.

“This would not have been possible without the steadfast support of the Australian Government, and on behalf of all Australian athletes and sports lovers, we thank them for it.”