“Challenge on to spend $195m among sports” plus 1 more

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Challenge on to spend $195m among sports

Posted: 16 May 2010 07:00 AM PDT

AUSTRALIA'S Olympic sports have won only half the battle for extra funding despite the record $195 million injection to sport announced by the federal government last week, two of the nation's most influential sports administrators have warned.

At the Australian Olympic Committee's annual general meeting on the weekend, both AOC president John Coates and Australian Sports Commission executive director Matt Miller said the fight for extra funding for sport was won, but that individual sports would now have to compete for their slice of it.

"It was our campaign that got the money and now we (Olympic sports) have to make sure we get more than our fair share," Coates said.

"Leaving it to the ASC board (to allocate) doesn't guarantee that the Olympic sports will get their fair share. You are going to be, in some cases, competing against each other (for funds)."

Miller confirmed that the ASC's previous funding criteria, which were biased towards Olympic sports, would not apply automatically.

Instead, all sports, Olympic and non-Olympic, would have to justify their bids for more money.

Over the next four years, $120m of the new funding will go to high performance, and $75m to the grass roots.

"I can confidently state we are not going to apply it as a percentage of income across 64 sports," Miller said.

"We are trying to get some well-targeted money to the key sports for London (2012 Olympics), but the sports who get high performance funding may not be the same as those who get participation funding. The government wants returns on its investment, both in participation and health outcomes."

Miller warned that all sports would face a "robust annual performance review" rather than the current quadrennial audit, to ensure they were meeting their promised targets.

Despite the continued uncertainty over the breakdown of the funding, Coates was confident enough of the ability of the Olympic sports to secure extra support to challenge them to deliver a top-five finish on the medal tally for Australia in London.

"With the funding boost that the government has just delivered, there can be no stepping back from this challenge," he told the AGM.

He exhorted the AOC's member sports to "rain on their parade" by finishing ahead of Britain at its home Olympics.

He said the key to knocking off the host nation would be to maintain Australia's dominance in swimming (20 medals to six in Beijing), turn around the cycling results (1:14) and improve in rowing, sailing and equestrian where the two nations traditionally go head to head.

Coates also identified gymnastics as an area where Australia could make inroads after winning three medals at last year's world titles.

All of those sports seem likely to get a funding boost.

The national cycling team has already made dramatic progress, winning three gold and two silver medals in Olympic events at the world track championships in Denmark this year.

Miller will host a forum in Melbourne on Wednesday to explain the allocation process to the sports, and a series of workshops will follow soon after.

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SPORTS HALL OF FAME: Ballantyne sees world from seat of bike

Posted: 16 May 2010 10:23 PM PDT

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By ELI NELLIS, eli@indianagazette.net

A thirst for adventure has taken Sara Ballantyne a long way.

It took her from Indiana to Colorado and all around the world, and her many accolades, including three world titles in mountain biking, are just byproducts of her adventures.

(EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the third of eight installments on the 2010 Indiana County Sports Hall of Fame inductees. Tomorrow: Mike Menosky.)

And her first American title race was just that - an adventure.

``I had no idea,'' the 1978 Indiana High School graduate said of her ability to win her first title in America, in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., in 1987. ``That was my third race I ever entered. I drove out there in my old pickup truck by myself. I had no expectations. ... You just went out there and rode as hard as you could and saw how the cards fell at the end of the day.''

There was no unified world title in mountain biking in those days, no rainbow jersey that the champions get now. But when Ballantyne won the title races in the U.S. and Europe, from 1987 to '89, she earned the title of world champion.

``It's a little bit of a misnomer. ... I won both in Europe and at Mammoth, so it's like, `Oh, I'm world champion,''' she said with a laugh.

Ballantyne didn't mind the lack of recognition for her accomplishments. She was just happy to go on adventures, and she thrived under her sponsor, mountain bike trailblazer Gary Fisher.

``He didn't really care about the mainstream races. I went and did this crazy 200-mile race in Alaska called the Iditabike. It followed the Iditarod course, and he would rather see me go do wacky things, off-the-scope kind of races like that,'' she said.

``I was really lucky to hook up with a sponsor that thought like me. I was in it for the adventure, not really that it was going to be so mainstream. It was just an added bonus that I could be making a living at something I loved to do.''

Ballantyne's journey began, in a way, in Indiana, where her family moved when she was in first grade. In high school she participated in gymnastics, track and field and tennis, but she credits her sense of adventure to her father, David, who along with his wife, Sandy, now lives in Laguna Niguel, Calif.

``I had a really active father. When I think back on it, I think he was kind of a pioneer dad, as far as outdoor adventures go,'' she said. ``I was not so interested in going, but he would pull me along. I remember him taking me cross country skiing. He was really into this little sailboat he had, and he'd always try to get any of us kids to go with him, so he kind of planted the seed.''

Sandy Ballantyne, who taught at Horace Mann Elementary School, thinks the Indiana community was important in shaping her daughter.

``She couldn't have done it if she hadn't learned everything she did in Indiana,'' she said. ``I think that's such a strength of small towns, you really feel you can do something. It gives you a wonderful sense of possibility. ... I think that's really the strength of being in school in Indiana, the self-confidence that it gives one. I think that's a big deal.''

Another early experience, a trip at age 13 to visit relatives in Denver, helped add to her interest in the outdoors and set the stage for the rest of her life.

``They had a cabin in Keystone, Colo., and it had a big impression on me,'' Ballantyne said.

``I was just so captured by the whole mining history, the big, dramatic mountains. It was after that experience that I had said, `This is where I want to go to college.'''

She attended the University of Colorado, in Boulder, and graduated in 1982 with a degree in psychology.

Another major influence in her exposure to the outdoors, in mountain biking and her many other interests, was her husband, Chris Haaland.

``I had a boyfriend, who is my husband now, and he introduced the whole big outdoor world to me, as far as mountains go, rock climbing. He got me a mountain bike for Christmas, probably in 1982 or 1983,'' Ballantyne said.

The couple went on an adventure, to Moab, Utah, the following spring.

``As mountain biking was just beginning, there were no real maps or data on where to ride,'' she said.

``It was just so cool. The area is super-unique, and you're riding a lot on slick rock. There's just no other place in the world like it. I just fell in love with it.''

What began then, and took her around the world, will bring her adventure back to Indiana for the first time in 32 years, for Sunday's Indiana County Sports Hall of Fame banquet.

``I'm definitely looking forward to it. It's going to be a walk down memory lane,'' she said.

``I think it's an honor. To me, it pulls the reins in a little bit to my past, making me check in back with that part of my life.'''

Her mother was also excited.

``I was totally thrilled, because I think (Indiana) was such a big part of our lives,'' she said. ``Our three children grew up there, and while it wasn't home to my husband and myself, it was home to them.''

Ballantyne doesn't have many connections to Indiana these days, but not by choice. Her activities and travels have just taken her in different directions.

``I keep evolving and meeting new people, and it's not like I don't want to, but I keep moving on, and I'm not very good at staying in touch with the past,'' Ballantyne said.

``I think that (going back) is going to allow me to look at Indiana in a completely different frame of mind. ... It's going to be reconnecting with old friends and probably making new ones, too. It's opening up that whole connection with my past that, if it wasn't for the Indiana County Sports Hall of Fame, it would have never happened. It's an honor for me to be able to share my last 32 years with people that are interested. That's great.''

What Ballantyne has to share with Indiana is, most notably, her three world titles. After her splash in '87 she won races in France, Belgium and Switzerland, along with two more in Mammoth Lakes, to take three world titles in a row, all the while enjoying a freewheeling, active lifestyle, including all types of outdoor activities to suit her motto, ``Variety is the spice of life.''

``In 1989, my husband came over with me and we climbed The Eiger two days before I did the world championships in Switzerland, and I won that easily,'' she said.

In 1990, an official world title race was organized, and Ballantyne took second place. She continued on, always in the top five in the nation. She was inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 1992.

``I just kind of petered along, and I still continued to do well,'' she said, downplaying her achievements.

In 1996, mountain biking became an Olympic sport. There were only spots for two men and two women, and Ballantyne fell short of claiming a spot. It was that year when she retired from a sport that was different from when she had started it.

``I'd go play with (Chris), but then I also had to go train and show up at these races. But I could still pull that off back then before there was all this pressure of the rainbow jersey and more people in it, more money in it, and it just became really stressful,'' she said.

Her mother added: ``She has so often said how much fun it was, because it wasn't that killer thing about who is going to earn first place. ... She was glad she was in at the time she was, because she really, really enjoyed it.''

From there, Ballantyne went on to a type of competition that perfectly suits her style: adventure racing. She competed on teams in the Eco-Challenge, a televised multi-day race that involved such tasks as horseback riding, trekking, paddling and, of course, mountain biking.

``It was 24/7 and you usually had to cover about 300 to 400 miles of terrain, and you just get from Point A to Point B, to figure out when you were going to sleep, when you were going to eat. You had to do really good with the map and compass to navigate on your own. They were super-cool journeys. It just tied together everything we did in our lives, anyhow,'' she said.

Ballantyne's teams won the races in 1998, in Morocco, and 2001, in New Zealand.

``It was really a trip to be passing through their old mud shacks and riding horses through their villages. You really felt like an old-time explorer when you did that,'' she said of her experience in Morocco.

``It was a real cultural experience. You really got off the beaten track in some of these countries.''

Now Ballantyne is on to another adventure: nursing. Also a certified massage therapist, she has been practicing as a medical surgical nurse at Montrose Memorial Hospital, in Montrose, Colo., for about a year and a half.``It's an interesting trip what I'm doing right now, because I'm in a completely different career,'' she said.

``My goal is: I want to be in the emergency room, because I still am an adrenaline junkie.''

While work keeps her busy, she still finds plenty of time to get outdoors, especially with her husband and 9-year-old daughter, Emma.

``Like my husband said - he's way more of a concerned parent than I am - he's like, `We're never going to be on a rope together again.' We used to climb all over the world. ... We take her with us, and now she's climbing, so I will always encourage her to do sports like that. It just gives you so much confidence in life and keeps you healthy, and also just to teach her what's important in life, in treating people,'' she said.

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