Two new sports will join the Western Australian Institute of Sport’s roster of sports programs for the London Olympiad, with women’s football and diving replacing baseball and softball.
The two new sports will join WAIS’s other existing 12 sports programs for the 2009-2012 period, with the aim of producing Western Australian athletes for the 2012 Australian Olympic Team and beyond.
“We’re excited by the opportunities that working with women’s football and diving will providefor the next four years leading into London,” WAIS Executive Director Steve Lawrence said of the sports’ inclusion.
“In the past few years WA has produced international class athletes like footballers Collette McCallum and Lisa Da Vanna and diver Natasha Cocker and we look forward to working with Football West and WA Diving to continue to develop future world class athletes in these sports.”
The WAIS women’s football program will be run in partnership with Football West and the Football Federation Australia while the diving program will be supported by the Western Australian Diving Association and Diving Australia.
Football West Chief Executive Officer Gary Chandler said the new women’s football program continues a series of exciting developments for the sport in WA.
“Football West are absolutely delighted that our elite women’s football players have been admitted to WAIS in what is a new era in women’s sport in this country,” Chandler said.
“With the success of our National Training Centre program for the past three years, and with the Westfield W-League completing it’s inaugural season, there is now a clear pathway from grassroots to the national side and we are confident that we will see a lot more Western Australian players pulling on the green and gold of Australia in the near future.”
Western Australian Diving Association Executive Director Jane Collins said it was an important step forward for diving to join the ranks of sports at WAIS.
“Coming on board as a full WAIS program is an exciting development for diving in WA,” Collins said.
“To be able to give our aspiring young divers access to world class coaching and sports science will ensure the sport has a bright future in WA. It’s a great opportunity that WAIS has given us and it wouldn’t have been possible with the assistance of the Department of Sport and Recreation.”
The diving program will commence operations as a WAIS sports program this month, with Chinese coach Deng Hong, former coach of 2006 World Cup gold medallist and Olympic silver medallist Luxin Zhou, to head up the program. Women’s football will commence operations on the 1st of April, with the head coach position advertised over the weekend.
Lawrence also noted it was important to mark the contribution that baseball and softball have made to the Institute during their tenures as sports programs.
“Although a number of factors have resulted in us replacing the baseball and softball programs both havebeen fantastic contributors to WAIS’s success for the past seven years,” he said.
“The work done by coachesDon Kyle and Kere Johanson in leading these programs has been outstanding.”
