Topic has already been covered and I stand my ground on my previous comments. I totally agree with what you're saying - we should have a method by which they can repay the government for assistance given to them (ala HECS and students ) - but only after my children have had the benefit of the government-funded system. After that, yeah, make them repay the whole thing dollar for dollar plus interest, but only once my kids are all grown up!

Moses,

There's an implication there that your children will be elite athletes. I'm assuming their mother is/was athletic?

Oden08 what a laugh most brood mares are not race horses but I am amused by your idea.

This idea may catch on particularly in countries like China? Nothing wrong with trying a little selective breeding though, according to history.

Rice signing up with Channel 7 ...why am I not suprised? I already knew and predicted 7 had an agenda with the Olympics. why do you think they focused so much on their swimming .. they were adertising their future "stars" to adorse their products for their sponsors .. so damn obvious

7 never had an agenda to bring coverage to Aus.they had an agenda to bring coverage for themselves

speedy - I think that is why networks bid for the Olympics - to bring exposure to their own network. How many friggin' times did we have to see a 'Packed to the Rafters' add (normally in the middle of an important moment in the race/game). I guarantee you everyone in Australia will now know about that show - whether they watch it or not I guess is a different story.

The AIS was set up after the 1976 Olympics in Montreal where we didn't win an a gold medal. I guess it has served it's purpose. We have won a bagful of medals since then and on a per capita basis we win more medals than any other nation.

I guess the question is; at each Olympics would everyone be happy with only a one or two medal return? If AIS was run on a HECS basis our sporting pedigree would soon be reduced. Do we care?

As the parent of a child approaching uni age I can see an argument for athletes to pay for their AIS tuition. Maybe they should all pay regardless of their success or income from sport as lets face it you start paying for your uni course as soon as you're employed, whether its in your chosen field or not (I think!).

they shouldn't pay as they have paid in blood sweat and tears. the privledge and pride we get in watching their gorgeous finely tuned bodies is payment enough. In fact we should be paying them

Steve, there is a threshold to which you can earn before you (very gradually) start paying off the debt. The threshold for sports stars could be $50k and tiered so that the stars can easily help cover their original costs.

I don't think it's an unfair concept at all. I had a HECS debt and had to pay it off even though I have never worked within the field in which I studied. Athletes train and then earn just like the rest of us.

And I don't think the introduction of an equivalent program would limit our development of athletes at all. Who's going to turn down an AIS gig because years down the track they'll have to barely pay it off? Additionally, the returned funds can be reinvested into the programs, covering more sports or more athletes.

I think the idea has a lot of merit. To add to what Isaac was saying re hitting a taxable income threshold before repaying HECS, professional sportsmen/sportswomen are are able to average their income over a period of time (5 years i think) which means if they earn an enormous amount one year but significantly less a year later they are not hit with a massive tax bill in the year they've earned all their income, rather it is smoothed over a period of time.

oooh, we do pay them, your and my tax pays them to live, train and travel the world. The olympics used to be amateur and in those days i was comfortable that we would fund these people to train whilst they held down normal jobs.. NO MORE, these people make more money from their sport than most of the rest of us ever will...and we are paying them??

798, they are welcome to do ads..infact i encourage it...but when they get paid... they start paying me back.

i dont know the exact figures..but i am guessing that 90%+ of the Strayan athletes at Beijing would have received some government (my money) funding.

I am sure you will find millions of parents who spend thousands of dollars just to provide their kids with the opportunity to play sport.

What a load of crock... if any hint of this gets out K Rudd will have his nose sniffing the US as usual to copy whatever theyre doing!!!

Things need to be free in Australia sometimes. If someone has a talent then scholarships etc should be given to allow these people to succeed for the country. I think community work and getting involved with children and helping out in that way should be enforced to a degree rather than mometary values.

Were gonna end up following the same ways our health care runs... which is also a crock of shite. Pay for what we use. Lets go for a look over the Great Britain or Canada perhaps and see what things they get for free...

RMM, do you understand how HECS works and could work in this situation? It does provide the opportunity for talented athletes to get training for 'free' (at the time), but simply 'taxes' them once they're successful enough to 'pay thanks'.

Someone trains at university and pays for that later through HECS once they're earning a certain amount.

Someone trains at AIS and could pay for that once they reach a threshold. Sounds fairly reasonable to me.

I doubt it would prevent anyone from taking up an AIS scholarship.

I think ir is a good idea - but it should only come out of their sports earning/endorsements. So if they never erarn enough as an athlete to warrant paying it back then they should never have to pay it back. Otherwise there would be too big a penalty later in life if they have to then pay off their sporting debt when they are working in another industry. Many athletes effectively put their life on hold while pursuing their sporting careers. If they fail (in terms of financial reward) it would seem a double whammy to then have to pay off your coaching/training debt later.