Article by Emma Greenwood courtesy of the Australian.
Swimming Queensland has sealed an unprecedented multimillion dollar decade-long sponsorship deal with Hancock Prospecting to ensure it can continue to develop the sport’s best talent through to the Brisbane Olympics.
The partnership, announced by Swimming Queensland chief executive Kevin Hasemann on Saturday, extends a relationship with Hancock that extends back to 2012.
Hasemann announced the deal – a long-term swimmer and coach development squad partnership that will allow the organisation to invest in and expand its “time-proven pathway programs” in the lead-up to the Brisbane Olympics – in front of more than 150 of Queensland’s best young swimmers dreaming of representing Australia at the 2032 Games.
Queensland swimmers won nine of the 16 gold medals claimed by the Australian Olympic team, and five of Australia’s six Paralympic swimming gold medals in Tokyo in 2021, while 75 per cent of the team named for next month’s world championships is from the state.
“A crucial, indeed critical, factor in swimming’s Tokyo 2021 triumph and earlier performances at the 2016 Olympics and the 2018 and 2022 Commonwealth Games was the extremely generous financial backing of high-performance swimmers through the Hancock Prospecting Swimmer Support Scheme,” Hasemann said.
“Implemented over a decade ago by Mrs. Gina Rinehart, who has been sponsoring swimming in Australia for more than 30 years, the scheme is the lifeblood of performance swimming in Australia because it enables Australia’s top swimmers to dedicate themselves fully to achieving their dreams of representing their nation at their best and with high distinction.
“For Australia to take on the world’s best and shine again in 2032, Swimming Queensland faces the herculean task of finding and developing a new team of swimmers capable of replicating the outstanding efforts and inspiring medals of Tokyo. “To do so successfully, Swimming Queensland needs adequate funding support to invest in and expand on its time-proven pathway programs.
“To do so successfully, Swimming Queensland needs adequate funding support to invest in and expand on its time-proven pathway programs.
“Without it, high expectations of Queensland swimmers replicating their amazing Tokyo record would become a pipe dream, and Australia’s prospects of a strong medal tally would be torpedoed.”
While Hancock’s proposed sponsorship of Netball Australia’s Diamonds and high performance programs suffered a very public breakdown last year, the company remains a massive supporter of sport in Australia, especially Olympic sports and individual athletes who would otherwise struggle to train at the elite level.
Olympic champion Zac Stubblety-Cook, who was at Saturday’s announcement with fellow high-profile swimmers including Mitch Larkin, Jenna Strauch, Lizzy Dekkers and para swimming world record-holders Katja Dedekind and Will Martin, said the period leading up to a home Games would be exciting for swimming in Queensland and he hoped to be able to inspire some of the emerging stars as previous champions like Brenton Rickard and Christian Sprenger had done for him.
“I also wanted to show my appreciation to our patron Gina Rinehart, who without her support of swimming across the country and not just in Queensland we would not be where we are today,” he said.
“This support for up-and-coming swimmers all the way through to the elite athlete level is really important for the sport’s long-term future and for the turnaround in performance in the last 10 years.”
