Changing the game: Deakin celebrates women in sport
At Deakin, we stand for diversity and inclusion. As we reflect on how we can #ChooseToChallenge gender inequity in light of International Women’s Day (IWD) earlier this week, we chose just a few of Deakin’s elite female athletes to highlight their incredible achievements.
We know sport is a powerful vehicle for positive health outcomes, emotional wellness, and socialisation. That’s why Deakin continues to push for cultural change, drive participation, and celebrate the achievements of Australia’s best female athletes.
In addition to official partnerships with the Melbourne Boomers basketball team, the Geelong Cats AFLW team, and the Melbourne Vixens netball team, we count many accomplished female professional athletes among us at Deakin as part of the University’s Elite Athlete Program (EAP). Meet some of our current elite-athlete students below and learn more about how they balance their studies with their sporting careers.
AFLW: Geelong Cats
As a proud major partner of the Geelong AFLW team, we encourage you to show your support for our Cats and your elite athlete peers now that the 2021 season has kicked off!
Some of our elite-athlete students who play for the Cats include Maddy McMahon and Becky Webster, who celebrated IWD 2021 by talking about the women in their lives who have inspired them:
This #IWD2021, we celebrate some of the women who have inspired us, those who #ChooseToChallenge. pic.twitter.com/oQ0Brpg2Gj
— Geelong Cats Womens (@catswomens) March 7, 2021
Webster cited her Gran as her inspiration, explaining how she raised and provided for five children as a single mum: ‘She’s always inspired me to be better and be the best person I can be.’
Webster, who is studying a Bachelor of Exercise and Sport Science/Bachelor of Business – Sport Management, manages to juggle many responsibilities herself. Webster spoke about how the EAP is helping her balance her studies with being a Cats player.
‘I think being able to study and play elite sport is a great thing in itself. Deakin has always been really helpful in making sure that we’re allowed to have that good balance, and they’ve always been there for us, making the timetables and that sort of stuff, being able to make it around our footy as much as they can,’ she said.
Teammates Millie Brown (Honours in a Bachelor of Psychology) and Stephanie Williams (Bachelor of Early Childhood Education) have also found the EAP helpful in balancing their AFLW careers with their studies.
‘The affiliation with Deakin has been really beneficial with my studies with the elite athlete program. They’ve been really understanding working in giving our preferences for classes, working it around our training schedule,’ said Brown, while Williams spoke of how being able to blend studies with her footy has opened up options for her future.
‘It’s a great and amazing opportunity to be able to do both and gives you more variety as a young woman to pursue your career,’ said Williams.
Support our Cats! AFLW tickets have been introduced to allow crowds to attend in a COVIDSafe environment, so you can secure your seats at any 2021 Cats match. Tickets cost $10 for adults and are free for children under 18 years of age so it’s a great day out for everyone.
Netball: Melbourne Vixens
Despite a devastating loss to the New Zealand Silver Ferns in the 2021 Constellation Cup earlier this month, we congratulate Melbourne Vixens stars Kate Moloney, Liz Watson and Jo Weston for their tenacity as part of the official Australian Diamonds netball squad and their long-term strategy in preparing for the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
‘When you play for your country, you never want to lose and yes, it does hurt to lose,’ Watson told the Sydney Morning Herald this week. ‘But we have to see the bigger picture and perspective where we are going.’
With the Constellation Cup representing Moloney’s debut as a Diamond on the international stage, see the video below to hear her speak about the benefits she enjoys in studying her Master of Business (Sport Management) while pursuing her elite athlete career and future goals.
You can also hear more from Watson (a Bachelor of Education – Primary student) and Weston (Master of Communication) about how Deakin’s EAP has helped them manage international sporting careers with their university studies.
Support our Vixens! Secure your ‘Beyond the Court’ Vixens membership now for exclusive news, tickets and discounts in 2021.
Surfing: Bella Nichols
Last year we crowned pro surfer Bella Nichols our Rising Star Award recipient in the 2020 Deakin Sport Awards, an annual event which recognises and celebrates the achievements of Deakin’s elite athlete students.
A Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering (Honours) student at Deakin, Bella is steadily carving herself a promising career as one of Australia’s most exciting new faces to join the World Surfing League (WSL) circuit. Growing up on the Sunshine Coast, Bella first took to the waves at the tender age of ten. Perfecting her technique as a teen, she went on to claim a series of national competitions in recent years to secure her WSL debut last year.
Hear from Bella in the video below about how she manages to study on tour via Deakin’s Cloud Campus and how her engineering studies intersect with her passion for surfing and future aspirations.