TSBE, Toowoomba Regional Council to launch study to identify sports it should target in Brisbane 2032

After the historic announcement of Brisbane’s successful bid for the Olympics, a study will take place to determine which sports Toowoomba should target to bring to the Garden City.

The next two weeks could potentially determine Toowoomba’s best chances for getting involved in Brisbane’s historic 2032 Olympic Games.

In the wake of the announcement from Tokyo that Brisbane’s bid for the games was successful, Toowoomba Regional Council Mayor Paul Antonio and Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprise CEO Ali Davenport presented a united front in pushing for Toowoomba to be included in plans for the games.

Describing the Garden City as an aspiring teenager working towards an Olympic dream, Ms Davenport announced a study would begin from today to decide which sport would be targeted to bring to Toowoomba.

“At this stage there are no significant events scheduled for Toowoomba, we’re actually not capable of hosting a big event right now,” she said.

“That could change, 11 years is a long time, and what we need to do as a community is determine which sports we should go for. We need to develop an Olympic event here in Toowoomba, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Toowoomba Regional Council Mayor Paul Antonio, former Olympian Darren Lange and Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprise CEO Ali Davenport celebrate the announcement of Brisbane as the host city for the 2032 Olympic Games.

Ms Davenport said over the next two weeks TSBE in partnership with the TRC would work on a plan that assessed current and future sporting capabilities to narrow the field down to four sports Toowoomba could potentially host.

“From that we will have to look at which one event we should look at developing international facilities for, so that we could host this wonderful event in our region,” she said.

“It’s not obvious for Toowoomba to host any events at this stage, and we’re going to be up against all the other regions in south east Queensland that want to host these events, so as a region we need to come together and determine which sport is going to be the best one for us and develop world-class facilities.”

Toowoomba Regional Council Mayor Paul Antonio, former Olympian Darren Lange and Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprise CEO Ali Davenport with swimmers Bronte Wade, 12, and Emmi Lange, 13, celebrating the announcement of Brisbane as the host city for the 2032 Olympic Games.

For Mr Antonio, Wednesday night’s announcement was a dream six years in the making, after he was one of 11 members of the South East Queensland Council of Mayors who were part of the initial push for the Olympics to return to Australia for the first time since Sydney in 2000.

“In my 10 years as mayor of this region, I’ve never had a more exciting day and an exciting moment than we had on (Wednesday) night at Southbank in Brisbane,” he said.

“We need a stadium that will hold 20,000 people if we want to be part of the Olympics. They’re the sort of things I will be talking to the powers that be in Canberra and Brisbane about doing for our city.

“There have been people in town already, Equestrian Queensland has been to town looking at facilities and we have the showgrounds, it wouldn’t take too much to upgrade that to Olympic standard.

“Take target shooting, archery, mountain biking, all those sports just to mention a few. The capacity we have in hockey, that means a lot, so a lot of things can happen.

“In Toowoomba we feel like teenagers, we’re just growing as a city and you wait until 11 years’ time and see what we can do for this country, what we can add to the Olympic Games.”