The Victorian Sport Awards is the night of nights for the Victorian sporting community and this year will celebrate participants, organisers, initiatives and the volunteers behind the scenes from all levels of sport in Victoria.

Presented by the State Government of Victoria and Vicsport on Wednesday 6 October, 2021 at Marvel Stadium, the Victorian Sport Awards will acknowledge the fun, inclusive and innovative activities that individuals and clubs undertook during lockdown to remain connected with their clubs and community while also celebrating the state’s return to the playing field.

Entrants in the Awards are nominated by friends, family, teammates, club members or their local community in recognition of their outstanding contribution to sport and active recreation.

This year, the inaugural Sports Accounting Australia Sport Initiative of the Year Award will be presented. This award recognises the work of individuals, clubs, teams, groups or organisations who have succeeded in enabling more people to participate in sport activities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vicsport Chairman Ron Gauci says:

“Vicsport is delighted to recognise and celebrate the wonderful achievements of the sport and recreation community after our industry responded so well to many new challenges.

“The calibre of nominations in 2020 and the subsequent finalists chosen are an indication of the strength and resilience of our industry in Victoria who battled a year like no other while finding innovative ways to stay connected. The process of judging the winners is a challenging but rewarding one and we now look forward to honouring the success of our finalists at the 2020 Victorian Sport Awards in June.”

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The Hon. Ros Spence, Minister for Community Sport says:

“It is fantastic to see these local legends getting the recognition they deserve at the 2020 Victorian Sport Awards.

“By acknowledging and celebrating outstanding role models on and off the field like these at the upcoming awards, I hope that we can help to inspire a new generation to follow in their footsteps.”

The quality and breadth of the nominations received for the Victorian Sport Awards makes selecting the finalists a difficult endeavour. 33 highly qualified Victorian sports people, comprising of Olympians, former athletes and Victorian sport administrators, were invited to constitute the judging panels charged with picking the finalists across the seven categories.

Judges included four-time Olympian Steve Moneghetti AM OLY and 12-time national hurdles champion Kyle Vander Kuyp OLY as well as CEO’s from the Victorian Institute of Sport (Anne Marie Harrison), Baseball Victoria (Kristie Middleton), School Sport Victoria (Rayoni Nelson), OneAthletics (Kate Palmer) and Bowls Victoria (Tony Sherwill).

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