Steve Georgakis of the University of Sydney traces Australia’s development as a sporting nation from British colonisation, to the low point of the 1976 Montreal Games, to the present day.
Further viewing:
VIDEO: why is Australia good at some sports and not others?
Kevin McDonald
Journalist
I think the predominance of AFL and to a lesser extent the rugby codes has milked the talent pool of Australian athletes. Cricket is suffering with kids who excel at cricket and footy forced to decide between games when they get older. The aggressive talent-spotting and nurturing processes eat up kids' teen years. They are forced early on to go down one track and other sports miss out.
It's like our Olympic athletes are like the last kids picked for a team. They want to play sport, but they're not good enough to play footy. And footy has that sex appeal. What girl would want to go out with an archer?
Women don't have that problem, except with the popularity of netball.