Australia's Sporting Success: The Inside Story

(Paperback)-Over the last few years, Australian men and women have been acclaimed as world champions in sports as diverse as archery, athletics, boxing, cricket, cycling, equestrianism, field hockey, golf, netball, rowing, rugby (both union and league), shooting, squash, swimming, surfing and tennis. The extraordinary performances of Australian athletes, and an awareness of the system that fostered them, probably only came to the world's attention during the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000, when Australia was placed fourth in the overall medal count and then first in the subsequent Paralympics. Following these triumphs, Australians won 39 team and individual world championships in 2001, many of them in non-Olympic sports. Written in an accessible style, featuring many profiles of prominent Australian sporting identities and 60 high-quality photos, Australia's Porting Success: The Inside Story provides the definitive explanation of a remarkable national achievement. Bloomfield traces the development of Australian sport from the early nineteenth century, when qualities of nationalism, social cohesion and tenacity developed as distinctive Australian character traits, partly as a result of sport. However this book's primary focus is on the modern era and a nation's investment in science, management, coaching and junior sport. The Australian sports system has become a blueprint for success, and is now being copied around the world.