{"id":511412,"date":"2026-03-01T08:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T08:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/511412\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T08:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T08:34:11","slug":"queensland-talent-scouts-use-world-first-ai-to-broaden-search-for-2032-olympians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/511412\/","title":{"rendered":"Queensland talent scouts use ‘world-first’ AI to broaden search for 2032 Olympians"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every few months, talent scouts from the Queensland Academy of Sport (QAS) hit the road and visit schools in dozens of regional towns.<\/p>\n

Through a series of simple physical tests, they’re looking for future Olympians and Paralympians in sports the students may have never heard of, let alone had the chance to try.<\/p>\n

It could be a sliding doors moment for a kid from Innisfail to become an elite aerial skier, or someone from Emerald to one day represent the country in archery.<\/p>\n

But those opportunities might only come once a year. Young people outside of regional centres will likely miss out altogether.<\/p>\n

The QAS is hoping to change that with a first-of-its-kind app designed to level the playing field ahead of the 2032 Games in Brisbane<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Queensland Academy of Sport launched the YouFor2032 app in August. (Supplied: QAS)<\/p>\n

Through the YouFor2032 app, people can record themselves performing basic movements like jumping and sprinting. The app then uses artificial intelligence to assess their abilities in real time.<\/p>\n

QAS’ head of talent Alex Roberts says the academy is looking for “underpinning capacities” that show potential for 15 Olympic and seven Paralympic sports \u2014 including boxing, diving and hockey.<\/p>\n

“It’s not about being the best athlete, it’s about having the right package and the right group of qualities,” she says.<\/p>\n

“Perhaps they’re really enjoying the sport they’re in, but they’re not reaching their full potential, they’re not going as far as they could.<\/p>\n

“It’s taking their existing skills, fitness, and being able to transfer that into a new sport where they could represent Queensland, represent Australia.”<\/p>\n

The app is open to young Queenslanders aged 13 to 23 for Olympic sports, and people aged 13 to 30 for Paralympic sports.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Talent scouts visit regional towns and metropolitan hubs across Queensland in their search for sporting talent. (Supplied: QAS)<\/p>\n

Nearly 6,000 people have downloaded the app so far, and those with promising virtual results will be invited to do face-to-face testing in the coming months during QAS’ first regional tour since the app launched mid-last year.<\/p>\n

Around the world, AI is being increasingly used to broaden the search for elite athletes.<\/p>\n

Potential talent is being passed onto Premier League sides and other top-tier teams in Europe and North America<\/a>, which have eyes on clubs in dozens of countries with AI cameras set-up to record amateur games.<\/p>\n

The International Olympic Committee is also using an AI-powered app to scout contenders for this year’s Summer Youth Olympics in Senegal.<\/p>\n

“We put the app into tablets, we gave it to military leaders and school teachers, and they just stood there, and they recorded the kids in their class,” sports scientist Richard Felton-Thomas said in a recent TED Talk<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“A few days into that, thousands of kids later, 40 are now being trained ahead of those Youth Olympics in things like wrestling and athletics and football.”<\/p>\n

From gymnastics to rowing<\/p>\n

Mac Rogers is just one young person who has been able to find a pathway to elite sport through the academy.<\/p>\n

Originally from Proserpine, he went to a talent search event in Mackay in 2022.<\/p>\n

Mr Rogers’ sport of choice growing up had been gymnastics, but the QAS scouts noticed that day his height and wingspan would be a better fit for some other sports.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Mac Rogers was into gymnastics before he started pursuing rowing. (Supplied: Mac Rogers)<\/p>\n

“I thought beforehand I’d really love an opportunity to show someone what I can do and they can tell me what I’m actually genetically predisposed to be good at,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Gymnastics, I was genetically predisposed to be bad at.<\/p>\n

“They gave me five options \u2014 beach volleyball, sprint kayak, boxing, pole vault and rowing. I told them I’d be interested in having a go at rowing.”<\/p>\n

Still in high school at the time, Mr Rogers had to wait until he could move down to Brisbane the following year to pursue the sport as there was “no rowing in Proserpine”.<\/p>\n

“They basically took me under their wing straight away,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I got to start learning under one of the QAS head coaches in a sport I would otherwise have had no opportunity to do.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Mac Rogers went to a talent search event in 2022 and is now part of the academy’s rowing program. (Supplied: QAS)<\/p>\n

Three years on, the 21-year-old is training twice a day and has medalled at both the Queensland and New South Wales state championships.<\/p>\n

Mr Rogers now has his sights set on the national championships in March, and beyond that, representing Australia in his home city in 2032.<\/p>\n

‘Whole lot of talent out there’<\/p>\n

While Mr Rogers was scouted before the YouFor2032 app’s time, he’s excited to see how it will give kids from country towns, like himself, an opportunity to get noticed.<\/p>\n

“I took a little bit of time off school that day to go [to Mackay] \u2026 it was an hour-and-a-half drive. I was fortunate Mum was willing to let me do that,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Mac Rogers is training in both sweep rowing (pictured) and sculling. (Supplied: Mac Rogers)<\/p>\n

“The app makes it more accessible, which is really exciting because there’s a whole lot of talent out there, and some never see the light of day.<\/p>\n

“It’s a really fantastic program \u2014 it’s certainly changed a hell of a lot of for me.”<\/p>\n

Ms Roberts, who has a PhD in athlete talent identification, believes the app is a “world-first” for using motion capture technology that can remotely assess a broad range of movements.<\/p>\n

How Milano Cortina’s dispersed Games will impact Brisbane 2032 <\/a><\/p>\n

The 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics Games was the first to follow a dispersed model. With Brisbane 2032 also set to have this set up, there are plenty of things to be aware of.<\/p>\n

“It is the only app that uses computer vision and artificial intelligence in order to remotely screen athletes,” she says.<\/p>\n

“It can overlay essentially a stick figure that then allows the computer to calculate all the different metrics we might need.<\/p>\n

“It will look at the angle that elbows go to in a chest compression to the floor, how deep your push-up goes, whether it was a proper repetition.”<\/p>\n

Results are shown to users in real time, giving them the chance to try again or move on to the next test.<\/p>\n

“We know there are more people that have the traits we’re looking for. It’s early days on this, and there’s still a lot of untapped talent and potential out there,” Ms Roberts says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every few months, talent scouts from the Queensland Academy of Sport (QAS) hit the road and visit schools…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,256241,254,255,64,63,651,12756,10018,6342,256240,256238,588,19023,105,256239,256242,28539],"class_list":{"0":"post-511412","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-alex-roberts","10":"tag-artificial-intelligence","11":"tag-artificialintelligence","12":"tag-au","13":"tag-australia","14":"tag-brisbane","15":"tag-kids","16":"tag-olympics","17":"tag-performance","18":"tag-queensland-academy-of-sport","19":"tag-scouting","20":"tag-sport","21":"tag-talent","22":"tag-technology","23":"tag-you-for-2032","24":"tag-youfor2032-app","25":"tag-young-people"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}