Athletics Australia has unleashed on the cusp of a public hearing amid the inquiry into the cancellation of Victoria's 2026 Commonwealth Games.
In a scathing and lengthy submission provided to the inquiry ahead of next Tuesday's public hearing, Athletics Australia said the impact of the abandonment was "devastating" and declared the sport was in "survival mode".
The governing body, led by president Jane Flemming and chief executive Peter Bromley, also lashed the way in which Daniel Andrews, Victoria's premier at the time, announced the cancellation.
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The submission then argued that athletics had been neglected in the infrastructure legacy projects of Olympic, Paralympic and Commonwealth Games staged in Australia, before hitting out over the enormous financial discrepancy between AFL players and athletics sportspeople.
"The manner in which the news of the cancellation was delivered further compounded the angst, with the then premier of Victoria stating that he made no apology for cancelling the Games to instead invest in regional Victoria," Athletics Australia said in the submission.
"The upheaval this decision has caused for athletics in Victoria and Australia, as well as the Commonwealth Games, is immeasurable, with a blatant disregard for the significant logistical, emotional, financial and reputational damage caused.
"The Commonwealth Games brand may never recover from this episode, and in that, hundreds of past athletes who have competed in the green and gold for Australia with pride will now experience a diminished public perception on the value of their performances in this event."
Digging deeper into its forecast impact of the Victorian government's bombshell, Athletics Australia said the cancellation would affect its ability to lure elite athletes for Melbourne's Maurie Plant Meet and other domestic competition.
It also pointed out that many of Australia's athletics champions, including Cathy Freeman and Steve Hooker, contested the Commonwealth Games early in their careers, highlighting the event's importance to development.
And it said the Commonwealth Games were crucial to the organisation identifying, developing and retaining the technical knowledge required to deliver international events.
"None of these impacts will be confined to Victoria," the submission said.
"They will carry forward to Brisbane 2032."
The submission added that legacy opportunities from major international events, such as the 2026 Commonwealth Games and 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games, "should be significant".
"These legacies, however, must include those who put on the show, being the Commonwealth, Olympic and Paralympic sports, and not primarily the professional football codes," the submission said.
The Queensland government announced in November that the Gabba would undergo a $2.7 billion rebuild project, and while sports such as athletics will benefit from that throughout some 10 days of Brisbane 2032 competition, cricket and the AFL will reap rewards for many years.
"In fact, since 2010 there has been a loss of the warm-up track for Melbourne 2006 [originally a legacy of the 1956 Olympic Games], the traditional home of athletics in Victoria, Olympic Park, which was demolished so AFL players didn't have to walk too far to train," Athletics Australia said.
"Athletics fares poorly in relation to Games infrastructure legacy with Games athletics tracks often being temporary and the long-term facilities benefit being delivered to sports such as AFL and cricket."
The submission then noted that professional codes could offer "significantly more remuneration" than athletics and said those sports were becoming "more aggressive in their targeting of talented junior athletes".
It pointed out that while the average AFL player salary is $406,000 and only 10 players in the competition are earning less than $100,000, one of Australia's top athletes who has reached an Olympic Games podium is only earning $40,000 through Athletics Australia's National Athlete Support Structure (NASS).
Kaitlin Shave, a 22-year-old Queenslander, was a national sprint champion in her high school days, but she's been snapped up by Rugby Australia and will make her Australian rugby sevens debut in Dubai on the weekend.
Athletics Australia said it would "welcome the opportunity" of working more closely with the Victorian government to maximise the sport's legacy.
Three months after Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate and Perth Mayor Basil Zempilas outlined their plan for the Queensland and Western Australian cities to rescue the 2026 Commonwealth Games, a letter signed by Tate, Zempilas and Australian billionaire Gina Rinehart was sent to the prime minister last week.
Rinehart pledged her support for a concept described as "a coast-to-coast Games".
Australian athletics champions Jessica Stenson and Stewart McSweyn backed the proposal when Wide World of Sports asked the star athletes for their thoughts on the idea.
Athletics Australia will be represented by Flemming and director Steve Moneghetti at next Tuesday's public hearing.
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