Revealed: Winners for the Women in Sport Photo Action Awards 2021

Check out the professional and amateur winners for the Women in Sport Photo Action Awards 2021 plus we reveal the People’s Choice awards for both categories.

Sports photographer Casey Sims almost missed the moment that Australian hurdler Liz Clay booked her ticket to the Tokyo Olympic Games.

It was Day 4 of the Australian Athletics Championships and Sims was busy snapping the best track and field stars in action.

“At the same time, Nicola McDermott was jumping around two metres in the high jump and breaking the Australian record. So I was running between the two events,” Sims said.

“I didn’t have time to get to the other side of the track (for Clay’s event), so I stayed on the inside of the track. Liz had been killing it for the whole season… I knew that if she won that race, she’d book her ticket to Tokyo and it’d be absolute scenes.”

Fortunately, Sims got the shot.

The picture captures Clay’s utter elation at qualifying for the Olympics after years of brutal setbacks.

Tokyo Let's Go! by Casey Sims (amateur winner of the WISPAA Awards)

It also saw Sims - an academic and PHD candidate at Queensland University of Technology - take out the 2021 Women in Sport Photo Action Award (amateur category).

“From a photography point of view, it’s great to see some of us amateurs who aren’t always on the sidelines of the biggest games get a bit of recognition and a confidence boost” Sims said.

Veteran sports snapper Michael Willson won the professional category for his photograph of Carlton star Tayla Harris taking a spectacular mark against the Western Bulldogs earlier this year.

Carlton star Tayla Harris taking a spectacular mark against the Western Bulldogs earlier this year.

“Carlton were coming back, they were pressing. It was a real pressure point and Tayla leapt up for the mark. As she does with her amazing athletic ability just rose above everyone else, really clunked the mark,” Willson said.

“It’s not often you get a pack mark in an AFL situation when you see everyone’s faces, you can see the desperation and intensity ... it was probably one of the marks of the year.”

Willson - who also took the iconic Tayla Harris “The Kick” photo in 2019 - believes the Women in Sport Photo Action Awards were vital to promoting women’s sport.

“It celebrates female athletes and their amazing athleticism prowess. It’s not just off the field posed up shots” Willson said.

To the beat of the drum - People's Coice Awards in Professional category of WISPAA

This year’s People’s Choice Awards went to John Rohloff (professional category) and Malcolm Trees (amateur category).

The Awards aim to grow recognition and respect for the power and athleticism of Australian women participating in sport.

The competition judges were Minister Sport, Senator Richard Colbeck, sports journalist Samantha Lane, director of editorial for Getty Images Asia Pacific Cassie Trotter and News Corp head of sport partnerships Selina Steele.

The 2021 professional and amateur finalists captured sports including AFLW, baseball, canoeing, cricket, dragon boat racing, gymnastics, highlining, rugby league, rugby union, surfing, surf boats, swimrun, tennis, track and field and weightlifting.

People's choice winner in the amateur category for WISPAA - Punching through the sandbar by Malcolm Trees