The chip \u201cdetects the flight time\u201d of walkers, Beacroft explains, thereby eliminating the subjectivity from judging. \u201cThat\u2019s going to go a long way in creating some sort of reliability and respect towards the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tiny contraption could be the difference between an Olympic future and a slide away from the sporting spotlight. A planned reduction in the number of sports for Brisbane, a decreased cap of 10,500 athletes, and a need for the Olympics to modernise<\/a> leaves emerging sports competing with traditional pursuits such as fencing and wrestling. The IOC is also assessing each \u201cdiscipline\u201d \u2013 seeing, for example, track and road cycling as separate \u2013 based on its television audience, cost and complexity of facilities, and size of athlete cohort.<\/p>\n Chart to show the number of athletes at recent Olympic Games.<\/a><\/p>\n The traditional heavyweights are swimming, gymnastics and athletics, the latter with 1,810 competitors at LA 2028 or close to one-fifth of the entire athlete body. Each will retain their place, though some events or disciplines such as race walking may be vulnerable. Meanwhile, sports with bespoke venues like triathlon, or large athlete quotas like rowing and hockey, will be looked at closely in a process dubbed as \u201cfit for future\u201d by the IOC.<\/p>\n As IOC officials enter their final months of decision-making, several of Australia\u2019s potential podium contenders for 2032 including Beacroft, skateboarders Arisa Trew and Chloe Covell, climber Oceana Mackenzie (currently ranked second in the world in bouldering) and surfers like world No 1 Molly Picklum are in jeopardy of missing out if the IOC leaves their disciplines out of the core program.<\/p>\n Arisa Trew won skateboard gold for Australia at the Paris Olympics. Photograph: Frank Franklin II\/AP<\/p>\n Their participation would then require the Brisbane organising committee to include these sports as one of the hosts\u2019 additional picks, limited to four, akin to how breaking was included in Paris. Competition for those places is set to be fierce as Australian favourites like netball, surf lifesaving and touch football join the frenzy of aspirants vying for an Olympic berth.<\/p>\n Chart to show individual sports\u2019 revenue from the IOC for Tokyo 2020<\/a><\/p>\n There is another consideration, however, that has officials sweating. The cost of holding the additional sports must be borne by the local organising committee alone, rather than co-funded by the IOC. Organisers therefore face budget overruns if the IOC shunts preferred sports with large numbers of athletes or complex venues from the core program.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Sport in Focus<\/p>\n Our picture editors select their favourite sporting images from the past week, from the spectacular to the powerful, and with a little bit of fun thrown in<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n This dynamic partly explains the stance by the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, expressed at the Future Brisbane conference last weekend, that Brisbane 2032 officials and the Queensland government should consider using existing facilities in Sydney and Melbourne for sports beyond football, which already has interstate pool games planned.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the things I\u2019ve said is that it\u2019s Queensland\u2019s games, it\u2019s their decision,\u201d he said. \u201cThey could consider, just as the Paris Games had surfing in Tahiti, and all of the Games aren\u2019t always just in the city where they\u2019re held, if you want to save money and save time, then you could give consideration to that.\u201d<\/p>\n Sydney Olympic Park could host some bonus Brisbane 2032 events if the final program requires more facilities. Photograph: David Gray\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Co-funded by the state and federal governments, $7.1bn has been committed to Games venue infrastructure, but a detailed budget will not be possible until the IOC decides the final program. That had been expected in 2026, but now all that will be known by the new year is the list of core disciplines, as well some fringe proposals no longer in the running.<\/p>\n Instead, a final decision on the program will not arrive until the IOC session in April next year \u2013 a farcical situation around which the Brisbane 2032 president, Andrew Liveris, has already expressed frustration. \u201cI think we\u2019re all very anxious to get that finalised, and for good reasons,\u201d he said at the launch of the Games logo<\/a> two weeks ago.<\/p>\n Beacroft is confident race walking will make the cut, but says it is not easy for athletes currently in limbo. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to be in denial about it or anything like that \u2026 I kind of keep my fingers crossed that it\u2019s going to be in Brisbane, because that\u2019s a massive goal of mine and a big, big motivator for my career.\u201d<\/p>\n He agrees the Olympics need to modernised, however, and \u2013 thanks to the microchip \u2013 is proud of walking\u2019s response. \u201cWe\u2019re moving forward in a way that is modern, listening to feedback from other sports and other people, we\u2019re taking criticism on board and actually doing something about it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia\u2019s teenage race walker Isaac Beacroft won gold at the Commonwealth Games this year, propelling him into contention…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":950216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,85],"class_list":["post-950215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=950215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/950216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=950215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=950215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=950215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/1793649614_805_1008.jpg\")
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