Thursday, 1 August 2024

Ministers statements: Paris Olympics

Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:45): While others are cutting and running from the field, walking off the field of play because they have spat the dummy, we are getting in behind our Victorian athletes in Paris who are doing us proud. We have some of the best athletes in the world, and we are seeing it: our swimmers, our skateboarders, our boxers, our cyclists, our table tennis – I nearly said tennis; he thought he was a star once. I want to give a shout-out to Australia’s very first gold medal winner, Camperdown-born legend Grace Brown, who took out gold in the women’s individual time trial. She is just about to head into retirement. That is a fantastic boss move from Grace.

I am also a little bit biased when it comes to geography and sport, and I think it is fair to say that Bendigo and central Victoria absolutely punches above its weight when it comes to our contribution to the basketball world stage. I am loving watching Bendigo-born NBA star Dyson Daniels doing our state proud with the Boomers, alongside other local athletes Ally Wilson, Amy Atwell and Matty Dellavedova from the proud city of Maryborough, who are shooting hoops on the world stage. I also want to give a shout-out to Andy Buchanan, who will be making his debut in the Olympic marathon next week.

There is another thing we should be proud of. All the gold medals won to date by Australia have been won by women athletes. That is further fantastic evidence that when you invest in female-friendly facilities, when you invest in Get Active Kids vouchers, you are giving all kids, boys and girls, men and women, the opportunity to compete and one day perform on the world stage. That is what our focus is on: supporting people to get a go and have a go and being able to cheer them on in Paris over the course of this Olympics. This goes alongside all of our infrastructure investment, and we will keep cheering them on.