Support is growing for a national lottery to fund Australia's Olympic elite.
The Australian Institute of Sport's acting chief backed Federal Government moves yesterday to investigate the idea.
Brad Espeland said Australia's sports funding was ''looking pretty tarnished'' as against the British, whose Olympians are funded, in part, by a national lottery.
The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, said his Government would consider introducing a similar scheme, describing it as a ''positive, constructive idea''. Britain's higher ranking on the Beijing medal tally has re-ignited interest in the lottery idea as a way of expanding the funding pool to Olympic sports.
British sports receive $441 million a year, which could be boosted by an extra $125 million under a change to the National Lottery proposed by Britain's Conservatives yesterday.
Australian sports receive less than half the $441 million each year.
Mr Espeland backed comments made by Australian Sports Commission chairman Peter Bartels that funding was spread too thinly and more was needed to save sports from losing their income.
The lottery idea was worth considering, he said.
''You've got two sides of the coin,'' Mr Espeland said.
''Our side is looking pretty tarnished and their [the British] side is looking pretty shiny.
''There's a review coming up and we'll make submissions to that review.
''The bottom line is, is extra money needed? Well, you've just got to look at that statement with one side of the coin.
''More resources, more focus. I know which one I'd call heads.''
Olympic sports received just 0.07 per cent of gross government expenditure, less than the arts and defence, he said.
Mr Bartels has backed merging state institutes of sport into a national system to ensure Australia's international competitiveness.
''This needs to be complemented by increased spending on talent identification, sports science and sports medicine, and support for coaches,'' he said.
''We need to sharpen our funding focus on highly ranked athletes and sports at the expense of non-performers, and grants for national sporting organisations need to be increased and indexed.''
Opportunities in community sport and support for participation needed to be increased, Mr Bartels said.
''Particular attention needs to be paid to physical activity in the school system and school sports overall. The success of our sport system has been the community club structure and the hundreds of thousands of volunteers that support our athletes.''
Mr Espeland said disappointing results from the Beijing Olympics could see some sports, such as cycling, lose a slice of their funding.
Britain stunned the cycling world, winning the bulk of the track medals on offer, often in races that Australian riders had claimed in Athens.
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