Applications for the 2010/11 Sport Leadership Grants and Scholarships for Women (SLGSfW) are now open. Women from all areas and levels of sport, who wish to increase their leadership ability through education and development opportunities, are encouraged to apply.

Michelle Mort was a 2009/2010 grant recipient who applied for funding to become a qualified swimming coach. In 2006 Mort moved to Bourke, New South Wales, and discovered there was limited access to swimming lessons for her two young sons.

Due to this gap in services, Mort decided to start her own swim school. With little in the way of training, experience or resources, Mort relied on her own ‘get up and go’ attitude and help from the SLGSfW program — a joint initiative between the Australian Sports Commission and the Australian Government Office for Women.

The funding Mort received enabled her to complete a certificate course in training and assessment that allows her to train swimming coaches and timekeepers at the Bourke Amateur Swimming Club.

‘There is no one person around to train these people and getting anyone in to do that sort of training means we’ve got to get people from Sydney, over 900 kilometres away,’ Mort said.

‘The way I see it, the more accredited people we have around, the more everyone understands what they need to do, the better our club runs and the better off everyone will be'.

The 40-year-old remembers the enjoyment she had from recreational swimming in her youth, and wanted the same options for her children, Barney and Charlie.

‘At the age of four, my kids had never been to a swimming pool,’ she said. ‘When we moved into town [Bourke] I thought, great, we’ll get them to lessons, but there was nothing around.’

Mort started a swim school in 2006 with 40 children. Now she has more than 100.

‘This is the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done,’ she said. ‘Seeing a little kid who’s scared of the water at the beginning of the season then swimming ten or 25 metres is just amazing.’

Mort’s certificate course is one of 132 education opportunities across the country that was supported by the Sport Leadership Grants and Scholarships for Women in 2009.

Now in its ninth year, the Australian Government grants have helped more than 16500 women reach their potential in all areas of sport from managers, administrators, media and communication officers to coaches, officials and women in sport governance.

Applications close on Friday 30 April 2010.