It's all about the money

Remember the gauzy days when medals flowed from a will to win, good coaching, and dedication. Snell, Halberg, and Davies had those when they ran out from the Waitakeres to conquer early and mid Sixties middle distance events.

Nowadays that all looks sweetly naive.

Naturally, these are still required. It's another element becoming essential. Money. Results are now directly tied to how much is spent. Mali, the team our women's basketballers beat in their opening game, isn't as Mali as it looks. At least two of its team play in the United States, one in the well-paid professional league.

Someone spent a lot of Communaute Financiere Africaine francs, the Mali currency, to make that happen. Keep doing it and Mali will find itself with a medal-contending team.

Australia did, and not just in basketball. In everything.

That grew out of failure. In 1976 the Aussies came home from Montreal with zero golds. Malcolm Fraser announced a multi-million dollar seeding fund for what is now the Institute of Sport.

The plan was simple. Hire the best coaches, and keep hiring them. Look at the medal table from any Olympics since then. Australia is all over it. During the eight-year lead-in to the Sydney Olympics Australia spent somewhere north of the GNP of all the Pacific Island countries on developing athletes.

China has done the same, only throw in Australasia's GNP. Have a look at the medal table.

Now it is the United Kingdom, driven by demands for a strong show at the 2012 London Games. While British athletes and teams might not be winning everything yet the 'much-loved loser' tag is gone. Brits are showing up in many more finals and on the podium.

It's not just about sport. Australian athletes succeeding drove a confidence flowing out into business, political ambition, the arts, and anything once rotting in the 'too hard' tray.

Who will follow Great Britain up the table? My dollar is on the country with the population mass, the resources, the education system, and the money.

India.

Britain - no longer the plucky losers? Photo / AP