Wrestling Australia – review update

Background

In April 2025, the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) agreed with Wrestling Australia (WA) to conduct an independent culture and governance review, with the objective of ensuring that WA has robust governance practices, is culturally and environmentally safe, and is wellbeing focused and performance driven.

The ASC engaged an external consultant experienced in sports governance and culture both domestically and internationally to conduct the independent review. The reviewer was also supported by experienced ASC staff.

The reviewer conducted 30 confidential, 1-1 interviews across a wide variety of roles, including with athletes (current and former), office holders, administrators, coaches, medical personnel, clubs, as well as other organisations that deal with WA. The review was also informed by an extensive review of board documents, policies, financial records, correspondence, and complaints.

The independent report was delivered to WA on 10 July 2025.

Themes

A summary of the key themes and observations to emerge from the review includes matters such as:

-        The current board dynamics are hindering decision-making and strategy implementation. A view persists that improvements are acutely required for it to better lead and govern. Moreover, a range of additional measures are needed in order to better set conditions for the board to succeed.

-        The administrative burden with the sport falls unevenly on a few. Resources are too thinly spread, and planning and communication clearly suffers.

-        Complaint handling processes need to be improved and made contemporary, and a culture of permissiveness and disempowerment exists that needs addressing via action.

-        The athlete experience needs modernization, and there currently exists a high degree of wider stakeholder frustration that is reflected in the sport’s culture.

It was also observed that the wrestling community as a whole shares a deep, often lifelong, connection with their sport, and there are undoubtedly opportunities to grow and succeed.

Next steps

The Report makes a number of recommendations for WA to implement in order to enhance aspects of its operations.

WA and the ASC will cooperatively form a review Implementation Committee in order to consider and provide oversight and accountability of the adoption of all recommendations. WA will also continue to communicate further relevant updates as the review implementation work progresses throughout 2025.

11 July 2025.