Kali-yah Taafili Taoso is water polo player who was awarded a Tier 2 Scholarship within the 2025 Sport Australia Hall of Fame Scholarship and Mentoring Program.
19-year-old Taafili is from a family of five children and was born and bred in Brisbane. Taafili’s background is full of immerse culture with Samoan, Cook Island, Maori and Indigenous family history. Taafili originally started her sporting as a strong QLD swimmer and netball player. At 14 years old she was enticed by family friends to try water polo. Taafili began her career playing at a local Mermaids Water polo club based in Yeronga, Brisbane under the guidance of Lance and Nicola Johnson.
Taafili quickly improved learning multiple positions which was made possible due to her strong swimming background and her ball awareness from netball. Taafili started off learning to play centre back and through to her recent position as a centre forward. In her first year of playing she made the under 14 QLD team and the rest as they say is history. She went on to make the Under 16 Australian team which was a paper team only due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. In 2022 she made Under 18 Australian team travelling to Serbia and placing sixth in Worlds. She was the youngest selected on that team. In 2023 she made Under 20 Australian team travelling to Portugal at only 18 years old and still in year 12 at high school. Taafili was awarded a QAS scholarship to help support her in 2020 whilst in year 10 and trained with the top Qld Thunder Team.
Taafili has a strong connection to so many of her past and previous coaches who have all played a part in helping her development. She is unlike other water polo stars as she has no link or family who have previously played this sport. Taafili is still training with QLD Thunder multiple times per week and is supported by QAS Coaching and Staff. Taafili plans to continue playing water polo at an elite level and after watching the amazing Stingers at the 2024 Paris Olympics win their silver medal, she is even more inspired to continue her journey and one day make an Olympic team.
“After watching the recent Olympics and seeing the Australia women’s water polo team achieve a silver it has motivated me to continue, I have been very dedicated to water polo for 8 years training over 10 sessions per week making it hard to have a job outside of the sport. Sadly, water polo is not a high paying sport i.e. like rugby league for girls and it’s nearly completely self-funded which means a lot of family, friends and local polo clubs assisting in going to competitions. I am so grateful to be lucky enough to get some assistance to help me continue my journey in this sport. I have one more Worlds in Juniors next year in 2025. I have been lucky enough to be named in four Worlds Teams, the first being in under 16 which was cancelled due to Covid. I can’t thank the Sport Australia Hall of Fame enough for having great opportunities like this available to athletes like me to help not only financially but with awesome mentors to assist in our journey.” – Kali-yah Taafili Taoso on being selected as a 2025 scholarship Holder
Honours & Achievements
- 2024: Gold – Under 18 States Nationals against Polo Bears
- 2023: 1st – U20 Australia vs India
- 2023: Gold – U18 Brisbane Girls Competition
- 2022: 1st – U20 Australia vs Canada
- 2022: Bronze – Australian Team for Summer Slam
Social Links | Instagram: taafilitaoso
Bio picture credit: Mark Bryne
