A prolonged extension to the caretaker period of government in Canberra will further delay payments to the nation's top athletes.
Australia's Commonwealth Games team for Delhi in October will compete without any of the $48 million additional funding announced in the May budget.
A meeting of the Australian Sports Commission - the federal government's sport funding and policy arm - decided on July 26 not to advance the funds, including money allocated to the Direct Athlete Support (DAS) scheme, because the government was in caretaker mode after the announcement of the election.
Athletes depend on the scheme's funding to allow them to travel to compete in the northern summer or buy a car to take them to training or subsidise part-time work in order to train.
A commission board meeting on September 3 was timed to follow the election but is expected to further delay increased payments while the parties horse-trade over forming a government.
This means more than 600 athletes, including those training for the 2012 London Olympics, must subsist on the ''old money'' allocation, which will run out about October 27, the last day allowed for for the return of the parliamentary writs.
DAS funding has dropped significantly in real terms and 29 per cent in monetary terms since the start of the funding quadrennium.
In the last year of the Howard government, 379 athletes from 23 sports received $4.2 million in DAS funding, an average of $18,000 for each able-bodied athlete and $8500 for each disabled athlete.
In 2009-10, 546 athletes from 28 sports received $4.5 million in DAS funding, an average of $13,000 for each able-bodied athlete and $6500 for each disabled athlete.
Average payments fell because of the increased number of athletes training and competing, while the total allocation did not increase.
The fall in funding, together with no immediate likelihood of a share of the $48 million being released, has put athletes in a perilous position.
The Australian Olympic Committee president, John Coates, expects $8 million to $10 million of the additional money to be finally allocated to the scheme, with $22 million to $25 million spent on high-performance sport, retaining coaches, international competition and sports science.
Commission staff are relieved ''more money will go to more athletes'', with the $8-10 million allocated to 665 athletes - 120 more than in 2009-10.
Sports are angry at what they perceive to be bureaucratic bungling and question why the board cited the caretaker period as an excuse to freeze funds. They argue it required only the assent of the opposition for the funds to flow. With a former Howard government sports minister - Warwick Smith - now commission chairman, they believe this would have been possible to negotiate.
However, commission staff argue that even if there had been no election called and the board voted on July 26 to release the funds, athletes would not have received the money until October 1 because most sports - swimming being an exception - had not made their submissions.
The commission pays DAS funds directly to athletes, after consulting the sports.
Olympic, Paralympic and Commonwealth Games sports have been effectively paralysed financially during the Rudd-Gillard governments. This is despite Senator Rod Kemp, another Howard sports minister, describing the money as ''a rounding figure in the budget''.
Shortly after being given the sport portfolio, Kate Ellis announced a review by a committee headed by the businessman David Crawford.
When the report was finally released, it recommended a diversion of funds to mass participation sports. Ellis further stalled and cabinet finally voted to increase funding by $48 million, with only $15 million allocated to participation.
Despite Coates identifying a need to increase funding to athletes shortly after the election of the Rudd government, DAS payments have effectively been frozen at levels set in the final year of the Howard reign. Now they will be further delayed.
Roy Masters was a commission board member for 23 years.
