Heath Thorpe is a gymnast and a recipient of a Tier 3 Scholarship within the 2021 Sport Australia Hall of Fame Scholarship and Mentoring Program.
Heath was born in Werribee, Victoria, in 2000, and began gymnastics at age seven. He relocated to Brisbane without his family as a 16-year-old in order to train at the Gymnastics Queensland High Performance Centre. Heath competes in the All-Around and his strongest apparatus is Floor, in which he won medals at national championships in 2018 and 2019.
In 2016, Heath won silver in the All-Around at the Australian Gymnastics Championships, a feat he also achieved in 2017. A year later, he took on the world and won bronze in the Vault at the Junior International Team Cup in the USA, and finished fourth in that apparatus at the Pacific Rim Championships. These impressive results earned selection in the World Championships team, and he then returned home to win gold on the Floor at the Australian Championships.
Heath also won medals at the national championships in Floor and Vault in 2019, and competed at the Melbourne World Cup, before jetting off to Italy to compete at the World University Games, where he finished 6th in the Vault.
In 2020, Heath rose to another level with selection in the national team for the Pacific Rim Championships, before being named as a reserve for Australia at the Tokyo Olympic Games??
Heath is working towards taking on the world’s best at the world championships, Commonwealth Games and the Olympic Games in the future, and is completing a Bachelor of Communication at Queensland University of Technology. He hopes to pursue a career in Public Relations and Advertising, and to advocate for positive human change and greater equality.
“To be named a successful SAHOF Scholarship Recipient is truly such an honour. The Scholarship will allow me to peruse the necessary steps to achieve my ultimate goals without worrying about as many financial stresses. To be a part of such a prestigious program reiterates self-belief in myself and reminds me that I am capable of what I set my mind to. It is a refreshing reward after such a tough and relentless year.” – Heath Thorpe on being selected as a 2021 Tier 3 Scholarship Holder.
Awards, Honours & Achievements
- 2016: Australian Gymnastics Championships – 2nd, All Around
- 2017: Australian Gymnastics Championships – 2nd, All Around
- 2018: Australian Championships, Melbourne – 1st, Floor (Australian Champion)
- 2018: World Championships – Australian Team Selection
- 2018: Pacific Rim Championships, Colombia – 4th, Vault
- 2018: RD761 Junior International Team Cup, USA – 3rd, Vault
- 2019: World Universiade Games, Italy – 6th, Vault
- 2019: Melbourne World Cup – Australian Team Selection
- 2019: Australian Championships, Melbourne – 2nd, Floor
- 2019: Australian Championships, Melbourne – 3rd, Vault
- 2020: Australian Continental Team Selection – Olympic Selection
- 2020: Pacific Rim Championships – Australian Team Selection
- 2021: Sport Australia Hall of Fame Scholarship Holder – Tier 3
