Four of the State's high performing athletes have been selected for the VenuesWest Brand Ambassador Program which is now in its fourth year. The program helps local high-performance athletes pursue their sporting goals by directly assisting with the costs of pursuing an elite sporting career.
Of the 78 Western Australian athletes selected for the Australian Olympic and Paralympic team for the 2020 Tokyo Games, six were former VenuesWest Brand Ambassadors: Amber Merritt (wheelchair basketball), Nina Kennedy (athletics pole vault), Nikita Hains (diving), Brianna Throssell (swimming), Zoe Arancini (water polo), and Sarah Edmiston (athletics F44 discus).
VenuesWest owns 13 of WA's premier sport and entertainment venues on behalf of the State Government and directly supports WA's high performance athletes as they strive to compete on the world stage. In 2020/21, VenuesWest delivered considerable support to high performance sport through the subsidisation of competition and training in their venues, priority of use and investment in venue upgrades, allowing for 71,765 hours of high performance training and competition.
Each successful ambassador will receive an $8,000 sponsorship to assist with their training and competition expenses.
The athletes selected are each based at a VenuesWest venue and have competed or are striving to compete at the highest levels for Australia.
The Ambassadors are:
Tamsin Cook - Swimming
Tamsin, who trains at HBF Stadium, competed in the Rio Olympic Games in 2016 and has recently returned home from Tokyo where she received a bronze medal for the 4 x 200m freestyle relay.
Darcee Garbin - Basketball
Darcee is the captain of the Perth Lynx and trains at Bendat Basketball Centre and HBF Stadium. She recently won bronze at the FIBA Asia Cup while representing the Opals and has her eyes set on some big silverware in the next couple of years.
David Bryant - Paratriathlon
David has recently returned from Tokyo where he finished 7th in the PTS5 category of triathlon. A well-known face in the triathlon scene in Perth, David is hoping to qualify for the Paris 2024 Paralympics.
Robyn Lambird - Para-athletics
Robyn recently won a bronze medal in the Women's 100m T34 at the Tokyo Paralympics and hopes to podium once more at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
As stated by Sport and Recreation Minister Dr Tony Buti:
"The Brand Ambassador Program this year champions the dreams of four high performance athletes through direct financial assistance towards their training and competition expenses.
"These outstanding athletes will help inspire others in the community and encourage some of our younger sportspeople, as they pursue their dreams of competing on the world stage.
"Most of the elite athletes in our State are not on big salaries and both the individual athletes and their families go through lots of sacrifices to be competitive in their sport - we hope this financial assistance helps them pursue their dreams and inspire others."
