Sports technology, both in Australia and globally, is a lucrative business with many players and growing investment.

However, the industry owes much to its pioneers who recognised opportunities early on and have paved the way for the development of the sector.

Four finalists from three organisations have been named in the ‘ASTN Lifetime Leadership Award’ category of the upcoming Australia & New Zealand Sports Technology Awards (ANZSTA), which are supported by the Telstra-Cisco alliance, nextmedia and Vumero Sports.

The ANZSTA awards are being held on the 9th August at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne - the evening before the Vumero Sports Analytics in Sport conference.

Finalist one: Catapult Sports - Shaun Holthouse / Igor Van De Greindt

Shaun Holthouse and Igor Van De Greindt are pioneers of the sports technology industry in Australia - and have been at the forefront of the emergence of the industry globally over the past 12 years.

They founded Catapult Sports in 2006 after seeing an increased prevalence of evidence-based coaching techniques of individuals and teams globally.

The company’s technology is used by a ‘who’s who’ of 1500 elite teams across 35 sports.

Its success makes it the flagship story of the Australian sports technology sector.

Finalist two: ASTN – Craig Hill

Craig Hill was the founding Executive Director of the Australian Sporting Technologies Network (ASTN).

He has influenced national and state strategies on sports, industry and innovation policy and programs; developed and implemented multiple sports tech innovation programs and awards; secured key partnerships; and represented ASTN on various trade missions.

He unified the Australian sports technology sector by engaging directly with over 2000 vested stakeholders, representing over 500 companies.

This has led to numerous collaborations across multiple sectors for the benefit of all.

Finalist three: revolutioniseSPORT - Alex Mednis

Alex started revolutioniseSPORT in 2012 at a time when the marketplace was fractured, sports weren’t embracing technology and there was no trust in sports technology vendors.

He had a vision that if a solution was made that was user friendly, intuitive, and did what it said it could do, the market could emerge.

He was right, and now provides the core technology (membership, registration, business operations) to service 130 state and national sports, and he’s done it all in just six years.