Businessman David Crawford's report to federal Sports Minister Kate Ellis, it is already too late to help Australia's campaign at the Vancouver Winter Olympics in February, Coates has claimed.

 

He said: "I am, and I think all of our member sports are, very disappointed that it has taken so long to be produced.

 

"The sports needed additional funding immediately following the Beijing Games.

 

"We work in four-year cycles.

 

"Time has been lost."

 

Coates' warning has coincided with a study by the AOC which claims that Australia would have finished only seventh in the overall medals table with 38 medals, including nine gold, based on results from this year's major events.

 

According to the survey, the United States would have finished top with 90 medals ahead of Russia with 70, China 68, Germany 60 and France 40.

 

Britain would also have slipped from fourth at last year's Olympics in Beijing to sixth this time with 38 medals, 11 of which would have been gold.

 

The survey is based on results achieved by Australians at World Championships, World Cups and equivalent events in 2009.

 

Since winning a record 58 medals, good enough for fourth position, at the Sydney 2000 Games, the Australian Olympic team has experienced a steady decline to 49 medals in Athens in 2004 and 46 in Beijing last year, where they finished behind Britain in the medals table for the first time in 20 years.

 

The AOC believes Australia would need a total of 55 medals to reclaim top five status at the 2012 London Olympics.

 

Coates said: "We are a long way off our goal.

 

"The study highlights a steady decline in the number of medals won over the past decade, and that is a major concern.

 

"We haven't been this low on the medal charts since 1997."

 

The AOC has applied for an additional A$108 million (£61 million) a year in Federal money for Olympic and Paralympic sports for the next 10 years.

 

It is the most they have asked for since 1994 when they wanted an extra A$30 million (£17 million) for six years.

 

The then Prime Minister Paul Keating awarded them three years at A$20 million (£11 million) and three years at A$25 million (£14 million).

 

The amount they are asking for now is much more than twice the current level of A$73 million (£41 million), but the AOC claims it is is needed to keep pace with major competitors including Britain.

 

Coates has invoked memories of the 1976 Olympics, when the Australian team went to Montreal with expectations of 20-30 medals but came home with just five, not one of them gold.

 

He said: "Minister Ellis is too young to remember Montreal but I know she is savvy enough to understand that we don't want a return to those dark days.

 

"Countries investing money in their athletes are either going ahead of us or closing the gap."

 

 

Related stories

August 2009: Australian Prime Minister to be warned of British threat

August 2009: Britain on the rise, US and Australia slip

May 2008: Aussie funding target on course for London 2012

March 2008: If Australia wants success it has to pay for it, warns Coates

February 2008: Windfall for Australian sports

February 2008: Australia warned that it will slip further behind Britain if it does not invest