Australia blame lack of funds for Olympic medal outlook

The Australian Olympic Committee on Saturday blamed a lack of funding for the nation's poor medal prospects at this year's London Games. With just five months until the sporting extravaganza, the AOC chef de mission Nick Green said Australia was lagging in its bid for a top-five finish on the overall London medal table. Australia was likely to field its smallest Olympic squad in 20 years if the men's football and volleyball teams did not qualify, the AOC said. "Since the (2000) Sydney Olympic Games there has not been enough new investment into sport," Green told an AOC general meeting in Sydney. "We are currently being outspent by other nations; very clearly Great Britain and the German team." Australia was originally forecast to take 420 athletes to London. However, with the men's volleyball and football teams struggling to qualify, that number could dip beneath 400 for the first time since the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, AOC chief operating officer Craig Phillips told the meeting. The AOC said it would ask the federal government to review elite sport funding after the London Games. But despite the gloomy predictions, the 2012 medal target will not be revised downwards, the AOC said. Instead, Australian athletes currently ranked fourth or fifth in their sports are being urged to lift themselves into medal contention. The AOC has earmarked a total of 35 medals in London based on Australian athletes' performances in international competitions. As an overall medal tally, that would represent the lowest haul since Barcelona in 1992 when Australia finished 10th with 27 medals, including seven golds.