1. Gymnastics didn't have any nominees this year, which is a shame after Chloe Sims, Philippe Rizzo and the Women's CommGames team [who went on to win the Young Team of the Year gong] all got nods last year for their achievements in 2006.
2. Note on the "Voting Academy" page which sports are represented by governing body or related-media body members:
Surf Lifesaving, Volleyball, Cricket, Basketball, Netball, Skiing.
The remaining Voters are government and senate representatives, State sporting body members, major sports event body members (cf. Australian Olympic Committee), health and 'active living' organisation members, sport insurance company members and sports media representatives. Now, it's not that I think a Gymnastics Australia representative should be in that voting academy... I mean, I do, but ostensibly ALL sports should be represented. Sports that are played at a national level or moreso that have Olympic representation (in addition to ye olde AFL/Cricket/Rugby etc). I think it only makes the situation fair. Giving everyone "a fair go" is something consistently highlighted in sporting situations here in Australia, from ragtag grass roots teams to official and highly-publicised tribunal appearances. Every sport should be represented so any athlete with a major success (and possibly less publicity than the usual winners) has a chance to be nominated.
In other news, Australia has picked its men's team for the 2008 Pacific Alliance Championships and it looks to be a very good one.
Senior -
Sam Simpson (QAS)
Philippe Rizzo (AIS)
Josh Jefferis (AIS)
res: Sam Offord, Prashanth Sellathurai
Junior-
Luke Wadsworth (VIC HPC)
Mathew Curtis (QAS)
Jack Rickards (NSWIS)
res: Sean O'Hara (SASI)
No doubt few (if any) of these members will get television coverage, as the USA-Japan clash will be billed as more exciting. But I hope at least Rizzo and Simpson get their heads on the box because they're the ones riding a bit of success at the moment. The team will probably make for an NBC pre-Olympics 'fluff' piece if anything (along the lines of the Old Boy missing out and the New Blood getting to shine etc etc etc).
2 comments:
The womens team is as expected
...great. But seeing as no forums or websites have word of the team yet (by the looks of things), care to tell me who that team is? I've no doubt Lauren and Dasha are on it, but it would be nice to know the others.
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