The NSWIS Award winners: stories of grit, grace ‘n glory

The 2024 New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) Awards not only showcased the inspiring performances by some of Australian sport’s greatest names, but it provided the 400-strong audience with an insight into the character – the grit ‘n grace – that drove the winners to glory on the world’s major sporting stages.

Sam Safi, Southern's Managing Director, presented the SOUTHERN YOUNG ATHLETE OF THE YEAR Award to Grae Morris. The Twenty-year old Silver medallist at Paris 2024 Olympic Games, becoming Australia’s first medallist in windsurfing since 1992. Displayed outstanding form in pre-Olympic regattas in Europe.

Grae Morris: “My greatest regatta on top of the Olympics was when I was 14 or 15 in a state championships and I put my dad into retirement the first time I beat him, so he’s not very happy about that! [I wasn’t nervous about being in the hunt for an Olympic medal in Paris] it was awesome, there was three of us in a race deciding what coloured medal we’d get. We’re all good friends and we knew we had to bash it out for about six and a half minutes and be the enemies of each other but in the end, we were all achieving goals that we’d all dreamt of since kids so it was an awesome feeling.”

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