Usman Khawaja headlines AIS Champions in Chairs 2023
Athletes representing more than 20 Olympic and Paralympic sports took a day out from preparing for Paris 2024 to come together for the 2023 edition of Champion in Chairs.
19 October 2023
Athletes representing more than 20 Olympic and Paralympic sports took a day out from preparing for Paris 2024 to come together for the 2023 edition of Champions in Chairs.
Run by the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), Champions in Chairs is a yearly event to gather Athlete Committee Chairs and senior athlete leaders together to discuss current issues important to athletes and share learnings between sports.
A running theme of the day was how athletes could best use their voice to advocate and influence change, a topic close to the heart of keynote speaker, Australian cricketing great Usman Khawaja.
“At the end of the day, we [the athletes] are the greatest stakeholders in sport,” Khawaja said.
“What happens to the sport right now and what happens in the sport in the future is influenced and can be influenced by the athletes because we have our ears to the ground while we're playing.
“Sport is always evolving, so you need to stay in touch with that. And the best way to do that is to have feedback and recognition that the athletes that are playing the game at this moment as they probably have the best understanding of what's going on.”
Two-time Paralympic gold medallist Curtis McGrath, who represented Paddle Australia alongside Olympian Alyce Wood, said: “Usman's a bit of a legend in Australia and it's amazing to hear his story and his challenges and his journey, but also is his lessons.
“I think it's really important to mingle with other sports to see what others are doing, where they've found challenging moments and aspects of their own sort of athlete voice. But also seeing what the gold standard is, what we can aspire to, what we can learn from each other, and also understand where sport in Australia is heading.”
The day in Sydney provided a rare opportunity for athletes from different sports and from able and para disciplines to mix and network, something three-time Olympian and five-time Commonwealth Games gold medal winning cyclist Matt Glaetzer said is invaluable.
“You can be so consumed in your own little bubble of your sporting discipline, but it's a great opportunity to converse with other sports and know that you actually have quite similar issues.
“So, it's great to come together and collectively think about the things that we can improve in our own sporting organisations and collectively as well.”
Australian Sports Commission Executive General Manager of AIS Performance, Matti Clements, also updated the cohort on Australia’s High Performance 2032+ Sport Strategy, including how important athletes are to the vision, “We Win Well to inspire Australians”.
“That was really special and awesome to have Matti here in person and present to us,” Olympic skier Greta Small said.
“There are so many steps that are involved and the strategy is still evolving and changing, but I think getting the info straight from Matti is really helpful to understand the processes and how we can all collectively come together to help make change.”
- Learn more about Champions in Chairs.
