Pierre De Coubertin Award

Up to 190 (140 in attendance) senior Secondary School students were honoured at the annual Pierre de Coubertin Awards ceremony on Thursday 23rd June 2016, also International Olympic Day. This year’s awards ceremony returned to the Melbourne Cricket Ground a fitting venue as we celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Melbourne 1956 Olympic Games. The awards are funded by the Department of Education & Training and delivered by the Victorian Olympic Council.

Named after the founder of the Modern Olympic Games, the Pierre de Coubertin Award recognised students who demonstrated academic excellence and sporting prowess whilst exemplifying the Olympic values.

Melbourne’s own Nicole Livingstone OAM emceed the awards ceremony with guest speaker dual Bronze Medallist, Loudy Wiggins, also assisted with presenting students their awards.

A further 92 School and Sport leaders participated in an Olympic Academy preceding the awards ceremony where nine Victorian Olympians including selected Rio 2016 Australian Olympic Team Member Carmen Marton shared their Olympic stories and inspired students to lead a healthy, balanced lifestyle. The academy was an opportunity for Pierre de Coubertin recipients and sport leaders to interact with Olympians, and gain some insight to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games that commence soon as well as learn about the a.s.p.i.r.e Olympic values.

Olympians in attendance were:

Nicole Livingstone OAM - 1988, 1992, 1994 Swimming Silver and Dual Bronze Medallist
Tamsin Hinchley - 2000, 2008, 2012 Volleyball and Beach Volleyball
Pam Kilborn-Ryan AM MBE - 1964, 1968, 1972 Athletics Silver and Bronze Medallist
Carmen Marton - 2008, 2012, 2016 Taekwondo
Stephanie Moorhouse - 2004 Gymnastics
Rayoni Nelson - 2000 Badminton
Monette Russo - 2004 Gymnastics
Trevor Vincent OAM - 1964 Athletics
Loudy Wiggins - 1996, 2000, 2004, 2012 Diving Dual Bronze Medallist
Sean Wroe - 2008 Athletics

The Melton Secondary College Pierre de Coubertin recipient in 2016 was Natalie Vogele Year 12

Her citation read:

“Natalie is an outstanding person. She has performed at the best of her ability in all her school and community pursuits. She prides herself in not letting people down. Natalie has consistently volunteered to participate in the swimming and athletic teams in events where no-one else take the roles. Natalie is a very successful dance teacher of young children and has demonstrated leadership skills in many areas. Our staff selected her as a School House Captain this year.”

Our Olympic Academy representatives were Natalie, her sister Jade and the School Sport Captain, Emily Bibby.