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CHAMPION OUR FUTURE OLYMPIANS
INDIVIDUAL SPORT, COLLECTIVE EFFORT
Every athlete needs a team behind them - and Australia's youngest judo champions need your help now. In partnership with the Australian Sports Foundation, donations to TEAMJUDO32 are tax deductible from just $2. Make your donation now - and take it to training to encourage our judo family to get behind these young champions.
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TEAMJUDO32 is a dedicated fund to support Judo Australia's Pathways Program, the home of our three Development Squads for high performing judoka aged 15-22.
Hailing from clubs from every state and territory, these are our state and national champions and their keenest competition. Whether in Cadets (U18), Juniors (U21) or in the Under 23 Squad, they embrace a high-performance training program to prepare for competitions and training camps in Asia, the Americas and Europe. They are frequently selected to the Australian team and proudly represent our country, but this honour comes at huge personal cost.
These young men and women lend their bodies and complete focus to judo, often relocating from regional centres and interstate for access to the national coaching team. Not only do they face the costs of living out of home and the need to juggle training, work, school or Uni, but accepting a place on the Development Squads brings with it a requirement to attend up to 12 national and international tournaments each year. The travel costs alone are immense - around $25,000 per athlete per year! - and funding is scarce.
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Junior Development Squad members Alannah Joyce from Darwin Judo Club in the Northern Territory and Avalon Anskey of Yarra Judo in Victoria. Photographer: Kahlil Talledo.
U23 Development Squad member Danny Vojnikovich, from Victoria, in training at the NPC with Junior Development Squad member, Carstens Beyers. Photographer: Kahlil Talledo.
IN THE SPIRIT OF JUDO
Our Development Squad champions hail from all over the country, and a vast range of different backgrounds. The need to travel - for training, to tournaments around the country, to overseas competitions - hits hardest for those from regional or remote communities, from disadvantaged backgrounds, or the dedicated judo families who have several high performers among their ranks. No athlete should have to turn down a place on the national team for financial reasons - but many do.
This is why we need you, TEAMJUDO32.
To pursue our Olympic dreams - gold in LA in 2028, and gold at home in 2032 - we need investors willing to back our judoka and develop a financial cushion to make it possible for every Australian team member to travel to the competitions they have been selected for. In 2024 alone, this will span the PanAmerica and Oceania Championships in Rio De Janeiro, Cadet European Cup competition in Czech Republic and Germany, Junior European Cup competitions in Poland and Italy, and World Championships in Peru, Tajikistan, and Abu Dhabi.
The Australian coaching team's Step Up Model demands our judo athletes fight these international competitions to become world-class champions, and to allow them to do so, we need another type of champion: TEAMJUDO32.
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Champion judo. Champion Australian talent. Champion Australia's future Olympians. DONATE NOW.
As Australia's home Olympics draws closer, it's time to build a golden future for Australian judo. Judo may be an individual sport, but we are a community that lives the Code - and in the spirit of friendship, honour and respect, we need you on our team.
Introducing: TEAMJUDO32. A fund to help our future Olympians train, travel and compete on the global stage as they prepare to bring it home for Brisbane 2032.
