Hunter teenagers with exceptional athletic talent could be handpicked to train for the Brisbane Olympics under a new program launched this week.
Under the Pursu32+, youngsters aged between 14 and 18 will be connected to high performance expertise, providing them with an opportunity to develop their success in Olympic sports.
The collaboration is between the New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) and Regional Academies of Sport (RAS).
Both are hoping to provide regional athletes with a connection to the Sydney-based institute’s expertise and support.
Minister for Regional NSW Tara Moriarty says this offers an even playing field for athletes across the state.
“Athletes from country NSW had always punched above their weight in the Olympic arena, and the high-performance talent pathway program was an exciting initiative to uncover the next generation of sports stars,” she says.
“Sport plays an integral role in the regions through bringing communities together and building social cohesion, so there is always a rich vein of sporting talent to tap into that has the potential to shine nationally and internationally.
“From Marjorie Jackson-Nelson – the ‘Lithgow Flash’, who won two gold medals in the 1950s, to the more recent Tokyo Olympics where Nyngan’s Jack Hargraves scored rowing gold, I look forward to our regional sporting talent continuing to excel on the world stage.”
The program’s first intake of 25 athletes will occur later this year.
Each participant will have been nominated in consultation with RAS and their sport as having the potential to progress to elite level competition.
Selected athletes will be given access to the institute’s staff, an online literacy program and exposure to national level coaches.
NSWIS Director of coaching regional and talent Andrew Logan says the program is about more than physical fitness.
“The opportunities we can provide regional athletes through the Pursu32+ RAS talent program, will allow them to understand, and prepare for, the rigors and demands of the daily training environment that come with being granted an NSWIS scholarship,” he adds.
“The insights they’ll obtain through having access to NSWIS’s high performance staff and the institute’s programs, will help these athletes take the next step to becoming world-class, elite athletes.”
Tokyo 2020 Olympian, NSWIS scholarship athlete, and graduate of the Illawarra Regional Sports Academy Sarah Carli agreed.
“It’s so important for athletes to be recognised by programs like Pursu32+ because it gives them backing and confidence that they’re capable of bigger things as athletes,” she said.
“It’s going to be a game-changer.”
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