FIT congratulates Brisbane on Olympic win

Federation of International Touch (FIT) congratulates the city of Brisbane for its success in being awarded the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games host city. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded the games of the 35th Olympiad to the capital city of the state of Queensland, Australia, just prior to the start of the Tokyo Games. 

“This is a great win for Brisbane and on behalf of the international Touch community I would like to congratulate the Queensland Government, the Federal Government and the Australian Olympic Committee for landing this major event,” said Bill Ker, Secretary General, FIT. 

This will be the third time Australia has hosted the Games, following Melbourne in 1956 and Sydney in the year 2000. “The awarding of the Games will see a massive injection of government spending into sporting infrastructure and and we hope that this is reflected in better sporting facilities for the Southeast of Queensland,” said Bill.

Host nation governments tend to super charge their spending on their Olympic sporting programs, in a bid to win as many medals as possible, at their home Games. The British government are reported to have spent approximately $USD 7 million, in today’s terms, for each medal won at the 2012 London Games. 

Touch skills on show at the Olympics

For what it’s worth, Touch is having an influence at the Olympic Games. The Australian women’s rugby 7’s team, that won the gold medal at the 2016 Rio Games, was dominated by players who had learnt their craft playing Touch. Indeed 7 members of the team had represented Australia in Touch at senior and youth levels. 

There are former Touch players representing their countries in rugby 7’s at the Tokyo Games currently, Charlotte Caslick from Australia and Hannah Smith from Scotland, to name just two.