Best sport profile - written

This award recognises the best example of responsible and well-researched written profiling of an individual athlete, team or coach (can be print or online items). Entries may focus on a number of issues, including unique training regimes, personal obstacles and triumphs or inspirational features.

2022 Winner

Emma Kemp and Carly Earl, The Guardian ‘The Medal Maker’

In Australia, our most celebrated sailing coach Victor Kovalenko is known as The Medal Maker, opens in a new tab. In Soviet-era Ukraine he was an army and navy officer who excelled at Morse code, and a Moscow-based sailor prohibited from travelling in capitalist countries without a KGB chaperone. Forced to choose between coaching for Russia or Ukraine, he chose the latter, a journey which led to his eventual migration to Australia.

Finalists

Jeremy Story Carter, ABC ‘Death of a footy club’

‘Death of a footy club, opens in a new tab’ profiles the Quambatook Football Club informed by days spent researching the town’s history followed by on-the-ground reporting and photojournalism. The profile helped a broader audience understand how changing demographics and the modern, industrialised nature of farming can directly affect community sport.

Andrew Jackson, Fox Sports ‘The making of Josh Giddey’

Australian basketball prodigy Josh Giddey is now a household name after his record-breaking rookie season with Oklahoma City Thunder. This four-part series takes readers through Giddey’s rise, opens in a new tab long before he was drafted to the NBA. Former teammates, coaches and mentors revealed a different side to Giddey, including the periods of self-doubt and the “chip on his shoulder” that put the teenager on the path to basketball’s biggest stage.

Iain Payten, Sydney Morning Herald ‘Deek’s miracle of Brisbane’

Robert de Castella's stirring victory in the 1982 Commonwealth Games marathon, opens in a new tab is one of the most famous moments in Australian sport. It was a thrilling race with a determined rival unwilling to yield to the status of runner-up behind the hometown hero. On the milestone of the 40th anniversary, Iain Payten re-lived the Miracle of Brisbane with an in-depth restrospective.

News Corp, ‘Shane Warne – Genius. Ratbag. Goat. A tribute to a legend’

Shane Warne’s sudden death touched millions of Australians and cricket fans around the world. To celebrate Warnie's amazing career and life, News Corp Australia's National Sports Newsroom created an unprecedented six-part profile series, opens in a new tab totalling 68 pages in major metropolitan print editions and online. Each edition had a different theme, looking at his cricketing skills, friendships, tactical ability, celebrity status and business dealings.