Athletes the focus as WAIS trains for games

Matt Fulton officially started as full-time chief executive at the Western Australian Institute of Sport in April 2024 following what had been a turbulent period for the high-performance body.

His tenure began some months earlier, on November 1 2023, when he took the role in an acting capacity after the departure of longstanding boss Steve Lawrence and nine board members.

In 2021, an independent review by Sport Integrity Australia was held into WAIS’s women’s artistic gymnastics program between 1987 and 2016.

In findings released a year later, the review found it was “reasonably likely” that some gymnasts involved within the program during the time in question suffered or were subjected to abuse or harm.

Sport and recreation minister at the time, David Templeman, called on the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries to conduct a safeguarding governance and culture review of the institute.

Acutely aware of the significance of the situation, Mr Fulton has made clear his commitment to ensuring WAIS could regain and retain operational stability, while rebuilding the foundations of the business.

“We supported all the thirty recommendations in that review,” Mr Fulton told Business News.

“A lot of the recommendations we’d already started the journey of working on remediation and sort of fixing areas of the business to address that.

“Some of them were new and we’ve developed a really comprehensive implementation plan to deliver against those recommendations.

“We’ve worked really hard, diligently and had dedicated resources on that to ensure we’re doing a really good job.

“Only the other week ... I looked back on the past eighteen months to two years and had a look at everything we had delivered as an organisation over that period.

“It’s quite astounding when you look at the business change and business improvement.

“A focus on integrity. A focus on the ‘win well’ position that I talk a lot about. And the business has achieved a lot over that period of time.”

Mr Fulton said despite acknowledging the issues of WAIS’s past, it was pleasing to see the institute was in some ways now leading high-performance sporting entities.

“I’m really excited by the opportunity,” Mr Fulton said.

“In a lot of ways, WAIS is now... setting a new benchmark for how high-performance sport is done in this country.

“And I think that’s a pretty exciting space, when you can start to say that you’re leading something.

“If you’ve learned from the past, you’ve taken it on board, you’ve accepted it, you’ve worked hard at implementing change and now you’re in a position where you’re getting to a point of being best practice.

“And that’s firmly the trajectory that we’re on at the moment.”

In August last year, the state government, which provides 90 per cent of WAIS’s annual baseline funding of $9.5 million, announced it would provide the institute with an additional $20.8 million between 2024-25 and 2027-28, along with its yearly baseline contribution.

Mr Fulton said this additional funding package was important.

“That funding has been crucial on probably two fronts,” he said.

“One is sort of in the stabilisation phase that you referred to. That was about getting the finances of the organisation right, making sure our balance sheet was stable, and we were budgeting well.

“Yes, it was a big bit of money, but it certainly went towards achieving that purpose. But then secondary to that was what we call the foundation rebuild of the organisation.

“And that’s looking at literally the foundations we’re built upon and making sure we are really strong in the common business areas: the HR, integrity, finance, governance.

“Those areas we’ve uplifted significantly from a resource and process perspective to make sure the business is running right, in that we can then really leapfrog and step ahead in the coming years in growth across the sport side of the business.

“It’s been a big focus, and we are getting to a really good spot.”

With this additional funding package, significant emphasis has been placed on athlete-based welfare.

In December last year, WAIS’s newly established athlete advisory committee met for the first time.

Chaired by swimmers Tommaso D’Orsogna and Sally Hunter, the committee’s primary role is to represent the views of all WAIS athletes, along with providing recommendations and input to both Mr Fulton and the board.

In May, the institute also unveiled its new para-unit, designed to provide support for existing para-athletes and locate new talent while reducing barriers and inequality in comparison to able-bodied athletes.

The first of these athletes are in the process of joining the unit.

With both the 2028 Los Angeles and 2032 Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games on the horizon, Mr Fulton said doing the hard work now, including the recent restructure of the institute, would ensure it was set and stable when both events rolled around. 

“From an athlete-facing perspective, LA is looking really promising and bright,” he said. “We’ve started to do the forecasting and predicting sort of results, in terms of who is going to be around and sort of the path that they’re on. 

“And we’re looking in good shape.

“It’s only been in the last couple of weeks that we’ve just on-boarded some brand-new athletes through baseball and lacrosse, two sports that will be coming back into the LA games, so that’s exciting to have some new energy around the building and different athletes here that we’re supporting on that journey.

“And then obviously with the Paralympics and everything we’re doing with the para unit, that’s really setting us up for LA and Brisbane long term.”

Despite this, Mr Fulton is far from complacent about success being guaranteed, especially in 2032.

“I still remain concerned – with a hint of optimism – around Brisbane,” Mr Fulton said.

“Because all the predictions and data analysis we’ve done is showing that we’re going to drop off come Brisbane. This comes down to athlete numbers: when it’s a home games, the national team’s size grows.

“For WA to maintain the share of the pie, we need more athletes than we’ve currently got.

“That’s going to be our next focus as we move forward.”