The Tasmanian Institute of Sport (TIS) handed out 70 scholarships to elite and up-and-coming athletes in Hobart on Friday. Rowing, Hockey, and Cycling dominate the list as the most represented sports, with only one swimmer, Jacob Templeton, making the cut this year. Templeton competed at the 2016 Rio Paralympics in the Men’s 200m Individual Medley SM13 (8th) and the Men’s 400m Freestyle S13 (6th), as well as the 50m Freestyle S13, Men’s 100m Freestyle S13 and Men’s 100m Butterfly S13. Templeton trains at the University of Sunshine Coast University in Queensland, but as a Tasmanian native is eligible for the scholarship.
Tasmania has allocated $2.45 million Australian dollars (roughly $1.8 million U.S.) to the scholarship program, giving athletes access to high-level training facilities, equipment, trainers, sports science analysis and coaching, as well as financial support for travel-related experiences.
Gold medalist Ariarne Titmus, who recently smashed an Australian record in the 400M freestyle, and 2017 World Junior Championship finalist Jacob Vincent, are both alumni of the program, and will receive support through TIS scholarship when in Tasmania as TIS associate athletes. Not all past scholarship holders qualify for associate athlete status; they must qualify according to the Institute’s guidelines.
The guidelines state that to qualify as an associate athlete a TIS athlete must fall under one of two requirements. The first dictates a formerly sponsored TIS athlete may compete professionally either interstate or overseas in an Institute supported sport while maintaining a mutually beneficial relationship with the TIS.
The second guideline states an athlete may qualify for associate athlete status if the athlete has moved interstate to further their sporting opportunity and is subsequently supported by the state institutes and academies of sport (SIS/SAS).
Titmus and Vincent fall under the second guideline as neither have turned pro and both currently train in Queensland.