A unique leadership workshop hosted by the Griffith Sports College has given almost 50 up and coming young athletes an insight into the world of elite sport.
Covering topics such as drugs in sport, networking, social media and public speaking, the After the Siren workshop held in conjunction with the Runaway Bay Sports Centre on June 25 was presented to students identified by their Gold Coast high schools as our next future athletes.
Griffith Sports College and former Olympian Manager Duncan Free OAM said it was important to instill good behavior and positive habits into our promising athletes at a young age.
“We at the Griffith Sports College want to be part of educating our young athletes and assist them in making the right decisions, while at the same time creating opportunities for them,” he said.
“There is a need and want for this type of leadership and guidance in the age group of 15 to 17-year-olds.”
Griffith Sports College manager Duncan Free
Mr Free said with drug in sport a contentious topic in the sports industry at the moment it was vital these future sports stars were educated in this area.
“I spoke to the students about what drug testing protocols to expect as an elite athlete and why it was important to cooperate with officials as it was all about keeping the sport clean,” he said.
“There is also a public perception that 26 per cent of elite athletes are on performance enhancing drugs. In reality only 0.6 per cent of more than 6600 athletes tested by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority in 2007 and 2008 showed adverse results.”
The students were also able to speak directly with current elite athletes, who are also Griffith students – Gold Coast Suns Henry Schade (Bachelor of Business), Olympic swimmer Chris Wright (Bachelor of Environmental Design) and triathlete Jaz Hedgeland (Bachelor of Digital Media).
Other speakers included Hot Tomato’s Moyra Major on public speaking, Griffith’s Director of Office of Marketing and Communications Dean Gould on social media and media training and Runaway Bay Sports CentreHead of SchoolClinton Curran on leadership.
The After the Siren workshop was such as success that it will be held again on July 24 with students from high schools in the Logan area at Griffith’s Logan campus.
