There’s just over one week to go until the annual Victorian Institute of Sport Award of Excellence evening, where we celebrate the sporting achievements of our VIS athletes this Olympic and Paralympic Year.
Nicole Livingstone and Sharelle McMahon will be the hosts on the night, held at Carousel in Albert Park.
The awards to be presented include the coveted ‘Award of Excellence’, as well as the ‘Elite Athlete with a Disability Award’, ‘Youth Award’, ‘Spirit Award’ and the ‘Personal Excellence Award,’ recognising athletes in their sporting, academic and personal achievements.
The Coach’s Awards and the Frank Pyke Achievement Award will also be presented on the evening
VIS Award Nominees
The four nominees for the Award of Excellence have recently been shortlisted, including a mix of Olympic and Paralympic gold medallists: Dylan Alcott, Carol Cooke, Mack Horton and Catherine Skinner.
2015 Award of Excellence winner Dylan Alcott has been nominated once again following his standout performance at the Paralympics, winning double gold with the quad wheelchair tennis singles and doubles titles. Alcott joined an elite list of athletes to have won two Paralympic gold medals across two different sports, after he won wheelchair basketball gold in Beijing 2008.
Carol Cooke, who also won two Paralympic gold medals in Rio, has also been nominated. Cooke successfully defended her cycling road time trial T1-2 London gold, before she went on to triumph in the cycling road race T1-2 as well.
At just 20 years old and competing in his debut Olympics, Mack Horton won one of Australia’s first gold medals of the Games when he beat fierce rival, Sun Yang, in the 400m freestyle. Horton was also the first Victorian male swimmer to win an Olympic gold in the Games’ 124 year history.
Catherine Skinner was thrown into the spotlight when she claimed gold in the women’s trap shooting, defeating New Zealand’s Natalie Rooney in a tense final. The 26 year old from Mansfield, Victoria hit 12 of 15 targets, just one more than Rooney to clinch her first gold medal.
Alcott and Cooke are also both nominated for the ‘Elite Athlete with a Disability Award,’ where they will be up against Timothy Disken who took home the complete set in the pool: a gold, silver and bronze medal from Rio.
The nominations for the ‘ 2XU Youth Award’ include Isis Holt and Alec Potts, who each took home silverware from Rio, as well as Mt Waverley teenager Conor Rowley who won his maiden world title in July with victory in the men's Keirin at the 2016 UCI Junior Track World Championships Switzerland.
Russell Short, Anabelle Smith, Stuart Tripp and Samantha Wells are all nominated for the ‘Gatorade Spirit Award.’ Smith won an Olympic bronze in the women’s diving 3m synchronised springboard final and Tripp won Paralympic silver in the cycling time trial H5. Short made his eighth Paralympic appearance in Rio, while Wells has her sights set on the Winter Olympics.
Smith is also nominated for the ‘William Angliss Personal Excellence Award’ and will be up against Todd Hodgetts and Jo Weston. Hodgetts claimed Paralympic bronze in the shot put F20, while Weston has impressed as part of the Australian Diamonds and Melbourne Vixens squad.
The 2016 VIS Award of Excellence Dinner will be held on Wednesday 30 November at Carousel, Albert Park from 6:30pm.
