AIS Accelerate program connects retired elite women athletes with sports industry leaders

The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) advanced its commitment to retaining elite talent by hosting its premier Accelerate Connections event in Melbourne, marking a critical milestone for the program’s mission to transition retired women athletes into influential sports governance and leadership roles.

The Melbourne event served as a direct commercial bridge, uniting a highly accomplished cohort of retired women athletes—many with extensive high-performance backgrounds across Olympic, Paralympic, and Commonwealth Games—with influential executives, board members, and decision-makers from key state and national sporting organisations.

For the participating athletes, the initiative directly deconstructs the traditional barriers associated with moving from the field of play into elite sports management. Olympian and former rower Karina Newmarch said the program has strengthened her desire to contribute to Australian sport beyond competition with the event reinforcing just how valuable those initial conversations can be.

“Connections are everything.”

“Perhaps the biggest lesson for me was that people genuinely want to help others succeed. Sometimes you simply need to be willing to ask,” Newmarch said.

Industry leaders in attendance emphasised that the transition program acts as an essential talent incubator for an industry hungry for authentic, pressure-tested leadership.

Among the guests was senior manager at the Centre for Multicultural Sport, Julie Symons, said that the sporting sector has much to gain from the perspectives of elite athletes.

“I’m always keen to support sportswomen at any stage of their pathway to explore their careers and leadership aspirations, and to address the commonly held self doubt that many athletes have about how their experiences as athletes translate beyond a high performance setting.”

“This was an extraordinary group of women with diverse sporting and lived experience. It was not lost on me that the sector would be very lucky to harness their collective contribution, across every aspect of the sporting landscape,” Symons said.

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