How Olympic gold can boost Australia’s economy and psyche

Wesfarmers boss Rob Scott tells Editor at Large Louise Evans that the nation’s business and cultural stocks will rise along with Australia’s medal tally at the Paris Olympics.

Success at the Paris Olympics is vital to the national psyche and to Australia’s future prosperity, according to Wesfarmers chief executive and Olympic rowing silver medallist Rob Scott.

Scott, 54, is a self-confessed “sports fanatic” who is taking leave from running one of Australia’s largest listed companies – which owns Bunnings, Kmart, Target, Officeworks and Priceline pharmacies – to attend his fifth Olympics in Paris. 

He’s going to be flat out with tickets to watch his first loves of rowing and water polo, as well as the beach volleyball, track and field, and the opening ceremony.

Scott agrees with Sportshounds’ Olympic experts who’ve predicted Australia has the form and ranking to once again finish in the world top five on the medal table, but he cautioned everything has to go right to pull off that “challenging target”.

Being a captain of industry as well as a dual Olympian and Rowing Australia’s recently-retired  president of 10 years, Scott knows how important the Olympics are to Australia’s corporate and cultural consciousness and how success can seed profits in sport, industry and trade.

 “The success of Australia both economically and culturally is driven by us punching above our weight on the world stage,” Scott said. “It goes to the very heart of who we are as a country. The Olympics personifies that. The Olympics is the ultimate way Australians can demonstrate our very real potential to excel on the world stage. 

“Australia’s representation at the Olympics has never been more important. For Australia to be successful in business, and trade in a more globalised world, we have to be world class at what we do.

“Gone are the days when we can operate in a bubble, have an insular view of society or trade. We are a trading nation. We can only be successful if we are successful internationally in trade and commerce in terms of having strong partnerships. Australia being connected with the world and punching above our weight on the global stage is critical for our future prosperity.” 

Scott will be going to the Paris Olympics with his wife, pioneering woman in sport Liz Weekes, who made history at the Sydney 2000 Olympics as the goalkeeper in the gold medal-winning water polo team. Weekes is now an executive member of the Australian Olympic Committee. 

Watching that gold medal game with 17,000 other screaming fans in Sydney remains Scott’s greatest Olympic spectator moment. 

“They won the gold over the US with two seconds left on the clock,” Scott said. “It was a real nail biter. It was an amazing back story too because Liz and the team had fought so hard for women’s water polo to get into the Olympics. And they won that fight and then they won the gold. My pulse rate was pretty high in the stands that night.”

Scott’s greatest sporting moment as an athlete was winning a silver rowing medal with fellow investment banker David Weightman in the coxless pair at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics behind famed British champions Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent.

Rowing is the sport that still makes Scott’s heart pump hardest, so in Paris he’s looking forward to watching one of the best Olympic rowing teams Australia has ever assembled as they race for potentially six medals in the women’s single sculls, women’s double sculls, women’s pair, men’s four and both the women’s and men’s eight.

One of the rowers he’s most looking forward to watching is world bronze medallist and Sydney University student Tara Rigney, 25, in the single sculls. “She’s the most amazing competitor, exceptional from a technical point of view, and she’s such a fighter,” Scott said. 

The other athlete he wants to watch compete is pole vault medal hope Nina Kennedy, who like Scott is from West Australia. Kennedy, 27, is the reigning World and Commonwealth champion in the pole vault and she heads to Paris ranked No2 in the world. For Scott, Kennedy is an inspiring role model for both sport and business. 

“It is very inspiring for Australians watching other Australians succeed on the world stage in sport,” Scott said. “If someone like Nina Kennedy, who was born in Busselton Western Australia, can be the best in the world at pole vault, why can’t we all aspire for greatness on the world stage. 

“In a very fraught and fragile world of international affairs, the soft diplomacy of sport and the relationships it builds between countries and athletes is a really positive thing. That soft diplomacy and relationship building, coming together competing fairly, is good for the world.”

Scott first tuned into the Olympics for the 1976 Montreal Games as a six year old who was confused by Australia’s lack of success.

“I vividly remember Australia didn’t win a gold medal,” he said. “I asked my father, who was a physical education teacher, ‘why can’t Australians win gold medals’. He was pretty good at explaining how professional other countries were about sport.

“Fortunately those 1976 Olympics were the catalyst for Australia getting serious about sport and led to the establishment of the Australian Institute of Sport.  By the 1980s and 1990s many young Australians were able to watch the Olympics where Australians were successful on the world stage. 

“Coming back to Paris and the importance of the Paris Olympics for Australians, I don’t underestimate the importance of showing young people they can be successful on the world stage. Not everyone has the capacity to be an Olympic athlete or an Olympic gold medallist but there are many other ways to aspire for success on the world stage. That is what continues to inspire me about the Olympics.”

Scott is mindful too, as a member of the Brisbane 2032 Organising Committee board, how success for Australia in Paris will help build a talent pipeline for the Brisbane 2032 Olympics.

“Paris is a very important Olympics as we look forward to Brisbane. Many of our medallists in 2032 are going to be watching the current team so we need to give them every reason to strive for gold in Brisbane,” he said. 

“We should not underestimate the importance of events like Paris and then Los Angeles (2028) in setting up our team for Brisbane. There are many younger athletes who have just missed out on Paris and it will be an enormous source of inspiration for them. 

“It’s such a big commitment and personal investment over a decade or more to try to win an Olympic medal. We need to make the most of opportunities like Paris to develop the next generation of athletes and inspire the next generation.”

In the short term, Scott wants some decisions made about the venues for the Brisbane 2032 Games, which are caught in a political conflict over upgrades versus green sites, a dispute that may be resolved after the October State election in Queensland.

“It will be really important to settle on and have clarity on all the venues,” he said “That is not the responsibility of the organising committee. That’s determined by the government together with the IOC. Getting clarity on that would be really helpful to continue to plan for success in 2032 … With the Olympics, it is important to remember that it’s all about the athletes.”

Scott is also focused on how the Games will help grow and transform Brisbane just as much as he’s looking forward to experiencing the Paris vibe when he takes off on his Olympic holiday. 

Being an Olympic connoisseur Scott is also primed for two weeks of Parisian fare. 

“Olympic cities really come alive and some of the best moments are catching up with sports fans from all over the world in the city,” he said. “I am hoping to do a lot of good eating and drinking at all those amazing French bistros and meeting a lot of like-minded sports fanatics like myself.”