Minister plays down medal tally hopes

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Australia may struggle in Beijing to beat its gold medal tally in Athens, Sports Minister Kate Ellis says.

Australia won 17 gold medals in Athens, its best result yet, and 16 in Sydney, when it hosted the Olympics in 2000.

Ms Ellis says she isn't sure Australia can repeat that level of success.

"The competition is getting tougher and the challenges for Australia are increasing," she told ABC Radio.

"The rest of the world, one, are pouring a lot of money into elite sport but, two, one of the consequences of us hosting the Sydney Olympics was that the rest of the world got to come and see our set-up, our world-beating sporting structure in the way that the AIS (Australian Institute of Sport) is set up and we are seeing that being replicated in other places.

"So they are catching up and that's why we need to continue to reform our system and have an innovative approach."

But Ms Ellis said it wasn't just about pouring money into sport.

"There's no doubt that funding is a factor but it's my very firm view is that this issue is a lot broader than that," she said.

"The reason that Australia has over-performed in the past is not because of dollars ... it's because we've had such a smart system."