At the 2026 Aquatics & Recreation Victoria (ARV) Industry Awards, Leisurelink Aquatic & Recreation Centre won the prestigious Swim School Award, while a cross-department collaboration between Swim Sport and Leisure and Community Strengthening was recognised with the Healthy Choices Award.

The City’s passionate and high-performing team were strongly represented at the awards ceremony with 10 finalists, including three group entries and seven individual staff members.

The annual ARV awards recognise the excellence and dedication of staff in the aquatic and recreation industry with awards presented across 26 categories.

Leisurelink was awarded the Swim School Award for improvements that helped students progress through swimming levels faster while maintaining high-quality instruction.

Through changes to assessment scheduling, class structures and parent engagement, staff reduced the number of weeks spent in a swim level by 10.4 weeks on average, with some levels decreasing by 28 weeks.

Leisurelink was also recognised for delivering accessible, inclusive and culturally safe swim lessons, while achieving a record 3,628 enrolments in 2025.

Through digitisation staff also saved up to 30 hours of administrative work and introduced new training and recruitment standards to strengthen onboarding, engagement and retention.

Led by Senior Health Promotion Officer Ella Hopgood and supported by Project Officer Daniel Wood, food and drink environments at City-operated sport and recreation centres have been transformed by embedding healthy food practices into everyday operations.

Delivered through Deakin University’s Promoting CHANGE research project, the initiative increased GREEN and AMBER food options while reducing RED items, making healthy choices easier for customers.

Staff also used product placement, pricing and promotion strategies to make healthier options more visible and appealing, while integrating the coloured food system into centre registers helped to track purchasing patterns, identify the lowest-priced options in each category and monitor progress without adding to frontline staff workloads.

By embedding the Healthy Choices Guidelines into the City’s policies, systems and infrastructure, nutritious food and drink options are now more accessible and affordable for customers.

Deputy Mayor Eddy Kontelj

Being successful in the aquatics and recreation industry requires an immense amount of responsibility, skill and genuine care for members of our community.

We are extremely proud of all our finalists and especially the Leisurelink Swim Team and Ella and Daniel for their incredible efforts.

On behalf of the community, I’d like to thank our hard-working aquatics staff for their unwavering commitment to making sure our facilities are places that residents love to visit.

Leisurelink Centre Manager Jonathan Burton

The team are extremely passionate about ensuring everyone in the Geelong community is safe in and around water.

We love seeing the smiles on our swimmers faces when they achieve a skill for the first time.

Every day we hear a story of a student who was scared, nervous or didn’t want to swim when they started, but now they are thriving and love being around the water.

That is reward enough for us, but it is humbling to receive recognition for all our hard work.

Senior Health Promotion Officer Ella Hopgood

I’m passionate about shaping community environments that give children and young people the best start to life.

Throughout the Promoting CHANGE project, we’ve considered the health and wellbeing impacts of product availability, placement, price and promotion of food and drinks in our cafes and kiosks.

We’re reducing children’s exposure to unhealthy food advertising and expanding access to nourishing options that help fuel fun and play.

Project Officer Daniel Wood

Our data shows that when healthier options are easier to see and access, people choose them.

We’ve seen that shift clearly in purchasing behaviour, and importantly, it hasn’t impacted revenue.

This highlights that supporting healthier choices and running financially sustainable facilities can go hand in hand.