Swimming Australia CEO
Mark Anderson has "guaranteed that national team swimmers will receive
all financial bonuses they are owed after a spike in performance this
year," according to Nicole Jeffery of THE AUSTRALIAN. A report earlier this month "suggested that Swimming Australia was
struggling to meet financial obligations to its elite swimmers because
the national team had performed above expectations after lean years" in '12 and '13. Anderson said that the national body would
"honour all its commitments to both base payments and incentive bonuses
for individual athletes." Anderson: "There's no risk to athlete payments. Athlete payments are guaranteed." Anderson
confirmed that more athletes had "qualified at a high level" than the
organization had forecast but that the national body was "making the
necessary adjustments to the budget." Anderson said there were "no issues" with Swimming Australia's
overall budget so the money was "available to shift into the athlete
payments budget" and Swimming Australia Ltd. was "working through that process now." Under
the incentive scheme, athletes ranked No. 1 in the world at the end of
the year receive a bonus of A$15,000 ($13,200) with a "sliding scale down to eighth
in the world" (silver A$10,000, bronze A$5,000, four to eight A$3,000) (THE AUSTRALIAN, 10/21).
