Celebrating the Local Sporting Champions in our Community
If you’re a family with a child who is a gifted sportsperson, it can be a great joy. However, I know that it can also place a great financial strain on your family, especially when they are called upon to represent their club, state, or country at major competitions.
One of the great grant programs that I always encourage people to apply for is the Local Sporting Champions. It’s an opportunity for families to secure some funding to help manage the costs of going to interstate and overseas sporting competitions.
We need to encourage the next generation of sports stars to pursue their dreams and develop their skills through competition. Developing a competitive ethos in young people makes Australia stronger in the future.
I was delighted recently to provide grants from the Local Sporting Champions program to students across the area. It was a great pleasure to have many of those students and their families join me recently for a presentation afternoon where we celebrated their great achievements.
I want to take this opportunity to publicly acknowledge:
- Hayley Schultz, Megan Chia, Leaneaka Bugeja, Angus Wilson, Madeleine Wilson, Elodie Sebire, Matthew and Hannah Costelloe, and Gabriella McBrien, who each swam at the 2024 Australian Age & Multi-Class Age Championships;
- Emma Cherry and George Abbott, who both swam at the 2024 Australian Open Water Championships;
- Mac Tutton, who competed as part of the Australian team at the International Ice Hockey Federation’s Men’s Under 18 World Championship;
- Vera Gerasimova, who competed in synchronised swimming at the Australian Artistic Swimming Championship;
- Belinda Scott and Thomas Scodellaro, who competed at the 2024 Australian Athletics Championships;
- Cooper Robb-Jackson, who competed at the ACT 23-24 State Championships;
- Jaiden Yu, Alexander Braendle and Sophie Polkinghorne who competed at the Australian Junior Athletics Championships; and
- Aaron Xu, who competed in Judo at the Teplice Cadet European Cup 2024.
If you’re interested in applying for a local sporting champions grant in the future, please contact my office by emailing Julian.Leeser.MP@ aph.gov.au
