Australia’s smallest Olympic sports are "profiting from the bitter stoush" between the Australian Sports Commission and Australian Olympic Committee President John Coates, with wrestling, modern pentathlon and fencing each securing A$100,000 ($76,550) in AOC funding to train and prepare their athletes for the Tokyo Games, according to Chip Le Grand of THE AUSTRALIAN. The first installments from a A$900,000 ($688,950) "war chest" set aside late last year by Coates appeared this month in the bank accounts of "minnow sports that receive little or no high-performance funding" from the ASC. Hockeyroos Gold Medalist Danielle Roche, a member of the ASC board, will challenge Coates’ 26-year hold on the AOC presidency in a secret ballot of all Olympic sports on May 6. The AOC announced the extra money for fencing within days of Roche declaring her candidacy. Wrestling Australia President John Saul said that his sport applied for A$100,000 in AOC funding at the end of last year and the first installment arrived two weeks ago. When asked about the timing of the payments, AOC Media Dir Mike Tancred said that the same sports "received AOC funding in the lead-up to Rio." He said, "It highlights our dismay with Winning Edge. We have stepped up to help the smaller sports because (ASC Chair) John Wylie has left them high and dry." Under the ASC’s Winning Edge funding model, government money for high performance sport "is skewed" toward sports with a record of producing Olympic and world champion medallists (THE AUSTRALIAN, 3/31).
