MANSFIELD’S Olympic Gold Medalist Catherine Skinner can foresee the end of her career.

Unlike other professional athletes, the shooter’s demise won’t come from injury, age, or lack of motivation.

Ms Skinner will stop shooting because she can no longer afford to.

The Rio gold medalist and decorated women’s trap shooter recently won bronze in the Almaty World Cup, a significant precursor event to the World Championships and Olympics.

However, the entire trip including air fares was completely self-funded.

“Shooters are lucky because we typically have quite a long career lifespan, and can continue competing for many years,” she explained.

“But that advantage means absolutely nothing when you aren’t being financially supported.”

Ms Skinner joins a growing number of Australian shooters who are concerned about Shooting Australia’s funding crisis ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympics.

The sporting body, which has an annual operating budget in excess of $3 million, recently sent seven non-funded athletes to the Almaty competition.

“We were originally quoted $6000 by Shooting Australia and were informed we needed to fork out our own money,” she explained.

“I was one of the lucky ones because I purchased my own flights from an earlier competition in Cairo to Almaty, so it was cheaper.

“But other Australian athletes weren’t as fortunate.”

Ms Skinner said there were several Australian shooters who had to “jeopardise their Olympic prospects” because they couldn’t afford the trip.

“You’re placed in a really difficult position, because you need to attend international events to secure ranking and prepare for big competitions,” Ms Skinner said.

The 33-year-old said Almaty was “part of a larger conversation” around the lack of transparency in Shooting Australia’s funding allocation process.

“Shooting Australia are funding things, but they’re not giving us enough to live,” she said.

“They are sending their paid administrators and a national coach to events, while athletes are left to fund themselves.

“On top of that, they’re making demands that prevent us from being employed and sustaining an income.”

Shooting Australia Chief Executive Officer Adam Sachs told the Mansfield Courier the Almaty Cup was originally not on Shooting Australia’s list of events “due to budget and logistics”.

“Following a request from several athletes, SA agreed to support the engagement of shotgun athletes in Almaty as long as they covered the costs of their engagement,” he said.

Mr Sachs said the cost was approximately $4000 to $4500 per athlete.

He confirmed Shooting Australia funded its national coach to attend “in support of these athletes”.

Mr Sachs said 50 per cent of the athletes on the Almaty team will have been fully funded to compete in five to seven other international competitions by the end of 2023.

He said a further 30 per cent of athletes would be fully funded or at least subsidised to attend two to three other international competitions.

Ms Skinner said she felt supported by Shooting Australia during her previous Olympic campaigns, but said the sporting body had “changed substantially over the years”.

Mr Sachs said Shooting Australia’s funding and international competition opportunities had increased since Tokyo, however were directed to athletes who demonstrated the “highest probability of success for Paris 2024”.

“Probability of success in 2024 is aligned closely with athletes’ recent performances in international competitions such as World Cups and World Championships,” Mr Sachs said.

“In contrast, however, funding to athletes that have not demonstrated this podium potential and/or whose performance progression has slowed or declined has been reduced.”

Ms Skinner was not selected for the 2020 Tokyo games, exclusion she attributes to “work commitments and not being able to attend enough competitions”.

She cited the ongoing precarious battle between being a professional shooter and holding down a full-time job.

She left her role as a chemical engineer several years ago due to shooting commitments.

“It was too hard to sustain a nine to five job while taking months off to travel overseas and shoot professionally,” she said.

“Shooting Australia wants us to train more, but I also need to generate an income to pay for bills and groceries.”

Retired professional sports shooter Domingo Diaz finds the financial burdens on his contemporary colleagues painful to witness.

The 75-year-old Mansfield resident competed in the men’s trap shooting event at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

“If I was a young athlete now, there’s no way I could afford to compete professionally,” he said.

“When I competed, everything was funded and there were many financial incentives to perform well.

“But over the past few years things have really changed and Shooting Australia seems to have more staff than shooters.

“Administration is having everything paid for while athletes have to pay their own way.

“It’s just not fair.”

According to their 2021/22 annual report, Shooting Australia spent $50,000 on an awards dinner and a further $135,000 on uniform expenses.

The sporting body is also yet to release the Olympic selection process for Paris 2024.

Australia has won five gold medals in shooting, making it the country’s sixth most successful Olympic sport.

However, Mr Diaz was worried that without continued investment, Australia’s strong record in shooting “would go backwards”.

“There are a lot of young shooters in this country that perform very well, but they can’t pursue or sustain a professional career because the funding simply isn’t there,” he said.

“We are putting our athletes up against highly paid overseas competitors.

“If something doesn’t change, the sport is going to die in Australia.”

Mansfield Clay Target Club president John Desmond had noticed a decrease in the number of young shooters at the club.

“We had one really promising junior shooter who recently dropped out because everything just got too expensive,” he explained.

“The cheapest ammunition is around $115, and then you have to cover your target costs and pay competitions fees.

“It’s the kind of sport that requires substantial financial support and not everyone can obtain that, despite their talent.”

Shooting Australia CEO Adam Sachs said the sporting body was in constant dialogue with the Australian Institute of Sport and other partners for additional resources and funding.

However, he said the increased costs of living in Australia and abroad meant recent minor funding increases were not enough to sustain the past level of success.

Mr Sachs said the sporting body was committed to supporting athletes in preparation for Paris 2024.

“Shooting Australia expects qualify teams of 12-14 athletes (able) and 1-2 athletes (para), and is confident that within these groups there will be one to two medalists,” he said.

However Mr Sachs reinforced that the sport’s ability to contribute to Australia’s medal tallies would be “closely linked to availability of additional funding post Paris”.

In 2022, Australia’s High Performance Sports System, including Shooting Australia, gathered to develop HP Strategy 2032+, a mission outlining Australia’s sporting commitments ahead of the Brisbane 2032 Olympics and beyond.

“In the lead-up to next year’s financial budget, the Australian Olympic Committee costed the additional funding required to deliver this Strategy at $2 billion over the next 10 years,” Mr Sachs said.

“Without this uplift in funding, Australia will continue to fall behind the rest of the world when it comes to Olympic and Paralympic success.”

Ms Skinner is currently living at home with her parents in Mansfield, preparing for her next competition in Lonato, Italy.

While looking forward to competing, she was unsure of what the future would hold.

“It’s really hard to be taken seriously and not be dismissed as being entitled,” she said.

“I’m very fortunate that my parents are very supportive of me, but you are left with a huge feeling of guilt.

“As an athlete you compete to make your country and family proud, but now you just feel like an expense.”