St Brigid’s Catholic College in Lake Munmorah recently hosted Australian Olympian and Judo World Champion, Joshua Katz, for a motivational talk to the year 9 and 10 students.
On May 5, Katz visited the school to talk about his early life, how he became involved in Judo, and his journey to becoming a world champion and an Olympian.
He also talked about his intensive training regime and how he dealt with abuse on social media, particularly after the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic games.
Katz also spoke about how injuries and the ongoing pandemic have affected his road to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic games to help inspire the students of St Brigid’s to be the best they can in the classroom, at home and on the sporting field.
“The students and staff both really loved the visit from Josh, he spoke for about an hour about how he’s preparing for Tokyo and how he dealt with the abuse on social media about his performance at Rio,” said St Brigid’s Leader of Learning for PD/H/PE, Meredith Carantinos.
This visit is a part of the Olympics Unleashed program run by Optus, where schools can register for a visit from an Olympian or athlete, and then one will be assigned to visit the school.
The program is designed to inspire students to find a passion and follow it, and to provide lessons in goal setting, overcoming challenges and developing resilience.
Currently 1,612 schools have been visited, with 214 athletes giving talks to 157,778 students.
“The visit was a huge success and the students really engaged with Josh.
“We will definitely be getting involved with Olympics Unleased again next year,” said Carantinos.
Harry Mulholland