More than 16 students, club members and alumni from The University of Western Australia will represent Australia at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
UWA West Coast Swimming Club member and Bachelor of Arts student, Tamsin Cook, has qualified for her second Olympics. During the 2016 Summer Olympics, Tamsin was the youngest swimmer in the Australian team and won a silver medal. After a few years away from competitive swimming, she returned to the pool in 2020 and months later, qualified for Tokyo in the 400m freestyle.
UWA Sport Excellence Scholarship recipient, Declan Tingay, will be making his Olympic debut in the 20km race walk, after setting a new UniSport record in the 5000m race walk. He is also a member of the UWA Student Athlete Development Program and is currently completing a Bachelor of Sport Science, Exercise and Health.
Bachelor of Arts student Tyler Miller will be one of the referees taking charge of the women’s Rugby Sevens games. Tyler became the first West Australian official at the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, as well as the first female assistant referee at a senior male level game at the World Series 15s in 2019.
Master of Applied Finance Student Tim Howard, will make is Olympic debut as a defender in the Australian men’s hockey team, the Kookaburras. He was part of Australia’s gold medal winning 2014 Youth Olympics side, and captain of the 2016 Junior World Cup team.
Also joining the Kookaburras as a goalkeeper is UWA Engineering graduate Andrew Charter, who made his international debut for the Kookaburras in 2011, before helping the team to win back-to-back Champions Trophies in 2011 and 2012. He’s been a mainstay between the posts ever since.
UWA Hockey Club player Flynn Ogilvie will also join the Kookaburras, as a midfielder. Flynn first represented Australia in the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore and has since won a Commonwealth Games gold medal and World Cup bronze in 2018, as well as Pro League gold in 2019.
UWA alumni George Ford has been selected for his second Olympics. The UWA Bachelor of Science and Diploma of Sleep Science graduate played more than 140 senior men’s games with UWA Torpedoes, including winning MVP in the 2015 season.
UWA Bachelor of Science and Master of Professional Engineering graduate Andrew Ford also played with the UWA Torpedoes Water Polo team. While with the team, Andrew played 140 senior games and won MVP in the 2018 season. He will be making his Olympic debut in Tokyo.
UWA West Coast Swimming Club member Brianna Throssell will participate in the 200m butterfly while fellow UWA West Coast Swimming Club member Zac Incerti, has qualified for the 4x100m and 4x200m freestyle relay team.
Pole vaulters and UWA Athletics Club members Kurtis Marschall, Nina Kennedy and Elizaveta Parnova, will represent Australia in the pole vault. While UWA Rowing Club Member, Bronwyn Cox will compete in Tokyo with the women’s eight team.
Also supporting the Kookaburras is UWA Master of Science graduate Brendyn Appleby, who is a strength and conditioning coach, while UWA West Coast Swimming Club coach Michael Palfery will support the Australian Swimming Team, providing coaching to Brianna Throssell, Zac Incerti and Tamsin Cook.
