Logan teens who may never have considered themselves elite athletes could be matched with an Olympic or Paralympic sport through the YouFor2032 talent search.
Queensland Academy of Sport head of talent Alex Roberts said the program was looking for untapped potential, rather than established athletes.
“We encourage anyone who dreams of being an elite athlete to come along, whether or not they’re already playing sport,” Dr Roberts said.
“We’re not looking for how well you can dribble a ball or shoot a hoop or anything like that.
“We’re looking for strength, speed, endurance, power, coordination — just those underpinning capacities that point to potential success in a sport in the future.”
Participants are tested on those physical attributes before promising athletes are matched with sports suited to their abilities.
The YouFor2032 Talent Search is due to hold Logan testing events on Wednesday 22 July and Thursday 6 August.
Dr Roberts said a young person playing basketball, for example, could instead be identified as having the endurance and lower-body strength suited to rowing.
“We know there’s a lot of fantastic athletes out there that just aren’t in quite the right sport for them in terms of that high-performance potential,” she said.
Athletes invited to the next stage enter a three-month confirmation program at no cost while they try the new sport.
Dr Roberts said the program came to Logan after local athletes began travelling to Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Ipswich in numbers large enough to catch the QAS’s attention.
The number and quality of Logan athletes discovered during the program’s first two years convinced the QAS to begin running sessions locally.
“We look at where the athletes are coming from and identified that there were a lot coming out of Logan,” she said.
“We thought, well, let’s put a couple of sessions in Logan, make it easier for those people and hopefully get a few more coming out of the woodwork because we know that the talent is there.”
Dr Roberts estimated about 10 to 15 per cent of athletes progressing into the program’s higher levels were from Logan.
Among them is a Greenbank para archer, while MyCity Logan previously reported BMX freestyle rider Kayla McCormick moved into the sport after being selected through YouFor2032.
The program has been running since 2022, with QAS talent staff travelling more than 60,000km across Queensland in four years to find aspiring athletes.
The search extends beyond well-known sports such as swimming and athletics to less familiar pathways including archery and sailing.
“There are so many different Olympic and Paralympic sporting opportunities out there that just aren’t as popular in Australia, aren’t as well known,” Dr Roberts said.
“That’s a big part of what we’re trying to do — connect athletes with those sports because we think they could be really good at it.”
Olympic pathway applicants must be aged between 13 and 23, while the program is open to para athletes aged 13 and older.
“Even if you don’t think you maybe have what it takes to be an athlete, you might surprise yourself,” Dr Roberts said.
Registrations and more information are available through the YouFor2032 website and app.
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