Charged with propelling Australia’s success in the lead up to the 2026 Commonwealth Games, the first phase of the Green2Gold2Great funding program has kicked off at full speed.
Still in its early phases, the funding has created opportunities across 18 sports, with 23 projects conducted since September.
Creating opportunities for Australia’s next wave of emerging talent, the program has taken shape across the globe, with initiatives as far as Europe and as close as the AIS in Canberra – with activities ranging from international competitions to domestic camps. Providing pivotal pathways for Australia’s sporting system, here’s how the Green2Gold2Great program has impacted in its initial stages.
Triathlon
Bringing together their able-body and para programs, AusTriathlon utilised their funding support to host a Team Australia 2024 Camp – the first of its kind with the two programs side-by-side.
With a focus on creating a unified athlete cohort across the para and able-body programs, the week consisted of collaborative training across the three disciplines of swim, bike, and run, as well as other team activities which laid the foundations for an interconnected group.
Mixing Australia’s most talented triathletes with an emerging group acts as a pivotal moment for the sport, with young athlete Tara Sosinski commenting on the importance of being able to learn from the best.
“It’s incredible as a younger athlete, we’re so new to the sport and have so much to learn, so to have para and able-body athletes older than us, being able to learn from their experiences – what they’ve done wrong, what they’ve done right – we are getting all the information we can so we can be better athletes,” Sosinski said.
“We are incredibly fortunate that they really open up to us and we all want to help each other and see each other succeed, so learning from them reaches that ultimate goal.”
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Entering her first professional year in the sport, Vision Impaired-PTVI categorised athlete Maggie Sandles and guide Felicity Cradick were also beneficiaries of the camp.
Having transitioned from rowing, Sandals, who has Usher Syndrome Type 1C, is chasing her dreams in triathlon and on the world stage with the camp acting as a valuable learning experience.
Speaking to her mindset coming into the camp, Sandles said “I’m taking every opportunity to learn from others, I came into this camp looking at it as an experience. Getting to learn from everyone, everyone’s got different perspectives on the sport and their skillsets and experiences differ, so everyone has something different to offer.”
With the Commonwealth Games providing an integrated program for able and para-athletes, AusTriathlon’s ambition to create unity across their athlete cohort signals the importance of the initiative and how it will strengthen the sport as a whole.
“The biggest thing that we receive feedback on from both cohorts is how much they learn from each other,” added Dan Mangano, AusTriathlon’s General Manager of Performance.
“Theres’s things that both programs do well, and there’s things that both can learn from each other. We’re trying to build something that inspires a nation, and what this camp does for us moving forwards is bring the team together.”
3×3 Basketball
Australia’s 3×3 teams have been in the action in the first half of the Green2Gold2Great program as well, with our able body athletes competing in New Zealand and the para-program assembling at the AIS for an intensive training camp.
The Men’s and Women’s Gangurrus competed in an inaugural 3×3 Trans-Tasman Showdown in New Zealand, where two sets of emerging squads battled it out in a hotly anticipated contest.
With three of the men’s team nudging 18 years of age, the series presented an opportunity for the Gangurrus to inject a new playing style.
With emerging players picked as part of the tour, the men’s team went down 7-1 across the eight-game series, whilst the women took it all the way to the penultimate game, losing 5-3 overall.
Speaking to the objective of the series, Men’s head coach David Biwer said, “this series will give players and coaches the experience we need to reach our goals.”
The men’s and women’s wheelchair 3×3 program utilised the Green2Gold2Great program to hold camps at the AIS, bringing together extended squads to train and compete against one another.
The only funding opportunity for 3×3 Wheelchair Basketball, this camp is the first in a series of initiatives that will help to establish a greater depth of athletes are capable of representing Australia.
Athletics
With an eye towards the World Relay Championships, a relay sprint camp on the Gold Coast has helped to accelerate Australia’s efforts as part of the Green2Gold2Great program.
Featuring a cohort of 29 athletes, coaches and staff, the camp provided opportunities for promising juniors and seasoned elites.
Led by Athletics Australia’s High Performance Relays Lead David Reid, the weeklong camp focused on excelling in sprint mechanics and testing various relay positions – with positive insights gained surrounding baseline data.
“Improvement in three-point start mechanics has been identified as a key area for improvement across the country on the men’s side, and on the women’s side, lead coach Cathy Walsh was focusing on hand positions for the receiver and nailing those down,” Reid said.
Athletes will have further opportunities to put these lessons into practice, with more camps scheduled in the first quarter of 2024.
With the Green2Gold2Great program in full swing, Commonwealth Games Australia is helping to propel Australia’s success on the world stage by facilitating innovative sporting projects.
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