Sporting greats Susie O鈥橬eill, Patrick Rafter, Jana Pittman, Kurt Fearnley, Steve Bradbury and Cheryl Salisbury will guide the exceptional group of emerging athletes accepted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame鈥檚 2025 Scholarship and Mentoring Program.
The Olympic gold medallists, world number ones and trailblazers will work individually with the six Tier 1 Scholarship holders in the program, which is backed by the Australian Sports Commission, incorporating the Australian Institute of Sport.
The Sport Australia Hall of Fame Scholarship and Mentoring Program provides invaluable financial and broader support, guidance and advice to outstanding young athletes aged 15-21 on their path to fulfilling their potential and achieving excellence on the global stage.
The latest cohort includes three 2024 Paris Olympic Games representatives: diver Ellie Cole and sprinter Sebastian Sultana, both from NSW, and table tennis player Finn Luu, from Victoria. It also includes 2024 Paris Paralympic Games swimmer Callum Simpson, who won two gold and a silver medal in Paris.
A total of 32 athletes from 30 different sports will share $150,000 in funding, spread across three levels.
In addition to the one-on-one mentoring from a past Australian champion, who is typically from a different sport but a current Member of the Sport Australia Hall of Fame, Tier 1 Scholarship holders receive a $10,000 grant to contribute to training and competition costs.
The 2025 mentors are:
- Swimming great Susie O鈥橬eill AM, who won two golds among eight Olympic medals and 67 medals at all major international competitions and was elevated from SAHOF Athlete Member to Legend in 2012.
- Dual US Open tennis champion and Wimbledon finalist and former world No.1 Patrick Rafter, the 2002 Australian of the Year and winner of The Don Award from SAHOF in 2001.
- Jana Pittman, the world champion 400m hurdler-turned-bobsledder who was the first Australian female 鈥 and second athlete overall 鈥 to compete at both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games.
- Wheelchair racer Kurt Fearnley AO, the three-time Paralympic gold medallist and four-time world champion who, in 2018, was the first athlete with a disability to win The Don Award.
- Australia鈥檚 first ever Winter Olympics gold medallist, Steven Bradbury OAM, The Don award winner for his short-track speed skating heroics at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City.
- Football pioneer Cheryl Salisbury, who retired as Australia鈥檚 most capped player and has been credited with contributing to the rise of the Matildas, as captain from 2003-09 and a veteran of two Olympics and four FIFA World Cups.
Sasha Grove is a football player who was awarded a Tier 3 Scholarship within the Sport Australia Hall of Fame Scholarship and Mentoring Program.
Hailing from Christchurch, New Zealand, Sasha immigrated to Canberra, Australia in 2006 and began playing football at Woden Valley Soccer Club at age 8. Between the ages of 10-14 Sasha represented the ACT at the National Youth Championships and National Training Competition as a midfielder before earning her first call up in the U20 Young Matildas training environment.
In 2023 Sasha participated in both rounds of the U20 Asian Cup Qualifiers in Vietnam and Kyrgyzstan. In December she appeared in both international friendlies against the U20 Chinese national team, scoring in the 3-1 win in game one of the series. Qualifying for the U20 Asian Cup in Uzbekistan, Sasha played in all games of the campaign, helping her side to a bronze medal finish.
The U20 Young Matildas qualified for the FIFA U20 Women鈥檚 World Cup set to play out from the 31st of August 2024. In preparation for the tournament, Sasha moved to Sydney to continue her training preparation with the Future Matildas program.
Establishing herself as a fullback domestically in the ALW with Canberra United, Sasha enjoyed four seasons with her hometown club before moving to Western United for the upcoming 2024/25 ALW season. Outside of football, Sasha is aiming to complete a Bachelor of International Relations at Australia National University.
鈥淪AHOF embodies the passion, determination, and grit of its high calibre athletes and I am extremely grateful to be a SAHOF Scholarship recipient. With so much pride for the Australian sporting landscape, I look forward to continuing my on-field and off-field development through SAHOF to take the next step in my footballing career.鈥 鈥 Sasha Grove on being selected as a 2025 Scholarship Holder
