Hockeyroo and 2019 Bachelor of Sport Development graduate Rosie Malone will be one of the star attractions at Griffith Sports College’s elite athlete webinar event.
Rosie is currently on the Gold Coast after COVID forced all Hockeyroos players to down sticks and head home from the national performance centre in Perth, with news the Tokyo Olympics would be pushed back 12 months.
“I am someone who has high expectations of myself not only in sport but also my career, and the sports college made sure I had the opportunity to achieve in both areas,” she said.
“From liaising with my professors and course conveners about scheduling external exams if I was overseas or interstate playing, to rearranging my timetable so that I could attend both my classes and training, the sports college was there to help me the entire way through.”
Griffith Sports College Manager and Olympic Gold Medallist Naomi McCarthy OAM said Rosie’s experiences balancing study and sporting commitments is something potential students are keen to hear about.
“Rosie Malone came to Griffith as a developing, emerging athlete, just missed out on Commonwealth Games and since then she’s been capped more than 50 times for the Hockeyroos,” McCarthy said.
“She’s a main stay of the team and would have been high up the list to be selected for Tokyo this year.
“She studied on campus for a number of years and then had to move to Perth because that’s where the training centre is for the Hockeyroos and the Sports College helped her to finish her degree over there online.
“Rosie is a really great example of what a lot of these student are aspiring to. They’re just starting on this sporting pathway and balancing study around their goals.”
More than 150 high school students and others have registered for the Sports College’s webinar, which will feature a Q and A session with Rosie and current Bachelor of Psychology/Bachelor of Business student, 2018 Commonwealth Games swimmer Zac Stubblety-Cook.
Stubblety-Cook was awarded Academic Athlete of the Year at Griffith’s 2019 Blues Awards for Sporting Excellence, balancing training for and competing in the World Swimming Championships while studying dual degrees and maintaining an extremely high GPA over the year.
Walking the talk
Griffith Sports College is also the only tertiary agency with two Olympic Gold medallists in key positions and both McCarthy and College Director Duncan Free OAM will also speak at the webinar.
“I’ve been speaking to a lot of athletes in the last 6-8 weeks that are interstate but are looking to get support from the Sports college through online study,” McCarthy said.
“The Business degree is a really popular degree for athletes and its fully online from next year.
“I think that makes a massive difference because it gives people living outside SE Queensland the flexibility to study even if they’re travelling.”
“Rosie sat a lot of exams in Perth while she was at the training centre over there. I’ve sent exams overseas with the swim team for Emma McKeon to sit the week before world champs, that sort of thing happens a lot.”
“The difference is that an elite athlete can finish one or two courses in that trimester, compared to having to sit that whole trimester out.”
Rosie admits she might not have managed her full-time study load and sporting demands without the Sports College.
“I think the number of elite athletes choosing to study at Griffith University really demonstrates the amazing reputation the sports college has,” Rosie said.
“The relationship didn’t end when I graduated either. They’ve stayed in touch; letting me know of opportunities that come up, keeping up to date with what I’m competing in and helping when I need them.
“I am so grateful for their support both in my studies and my sport, and I couldn’t think of a better group of experienced, passionate people to help athletes tackle the study/compete journey.”
Back on the coast during lockdown Rosie recently shared her training schedule in this video.
Griffith is the number one University in Australia for elite athlete support, with almost 600 elite athletes studying at the University.