Gordon Reid (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to congratulate and commend a tremendous young sailor from my community, Bridget Conrad. Bridget is a rising sports star in the world of sailing and recently was named as a finalist for Sport NSW's Athlete of the Year and for Australian Sailing's Female Sailor of the Year. Bridget grew up on the Central Coast and first discovered sailing on a school excursion to the Gosford Sailing Club to celebrate Tom Slingsby's Olympic gold medal in 2012. She says that after Tom autographed her hand that day she was inspired to learn how to sail and instantly developed the goal of following in his footsteps into the professional SailGP circuit and the America's Cup. When Bridget was 12, she started sailing the Optimist and went on to represent Australia at several international events as part of the Australian Optimist Sailing Team. Following this, she moved into the 420 class, and she and her crew became back-to-back female national champions. In 2024, Bridget placed third at the SailGP WASZP grand final in San Francisco and seventh female at the WASZP Worlds in Norway. If that wasn't enough, she was recently awarded the 2024-25 NSW/ACT Female Sailor of the Year. Bridget tells me that she is super excited for future competitions, including the SailGP grand final qualifier in December, the Asia-Pacific championship in January and the world championship in March. Congratulations, Bridget.