The Contribution of International Coaches to Australian Sport 1981-2012

In recent years, the Australian Rugby Union and Cricket Australia have been criticised for employing overseas coaches for their national teams.  This criticism has overlooked the important contribution of international coaches to the Australian high performance sport system since 1981. This presentation will outline an analysis of Australian team Olympic and AIS coaches from overseas for the period 1981-2012. The analysis covers over 200 coaches in over 35 sports from over 35 countries. It will also briefly cover some of the issues in employing coaches from different sporting cultures. Finally, the contribution of several high profile coaches including Victor Kovalenko, Alex Parnov, Hui Tong , Reinhold Batschi and Ju Ping Tian  will be highlighted.

Greg  believes it is important to reflect on why Australia moved from 14th at the boycotted 1984 Olympics, to 4th in 2000 & 2004 Olympics.  It is his belief that the contribution of international coaches is one of the reasons for increased success. Is Australia still investing in international coaching expertise at the same levels of the 1980s and 1990s?

Biography

Greg Blood, AIS Emeritus Historian, played a major in the development of the National Sport Information Centre for the period 1983 to 2011. In particular, he has a strong interest in high performance sport research and the factors leading to international success.