Victoria University has named national judo champion Ivo Dos Santos and rising basketball star Stephanie Cumming as its 2011 male and female Athletes of the Year.
The VU Sport Awards recognise the University's best performing student athletes in regional, national and international championships.
Dos Santos, 26, of Werribee has been involved in judo for more than 20 years. He was a winner in the National Championships in 2007 and 2010, the Oceania Championships in 2008, 2010 and 2011, and took home bronze medals at the 2008 and 2010 Commonwealth Championships. He's currently working toward selection on the 2012 Australian Olympic judo team. At the Australian University Games held in August, Dos Santos was named judo Champion of Champions (best across all weight divisions nationally).
Now in his third year of a Bachelor of Applied Science (Physical Education) at VU's Footscray Park Campus, Dos Santos plans to become a secondary school PE teacher to show the positive impact that sport can have.
VU's Female Sports Person of the Year, Stephanie Cumming, 21, is completing the first year of a Bachelor of Education. After she followed her brother into the sport as a seven-year-old, the Endeavour Hills resident began playing with the Dandenong Rangers in the WNBL at age 18 before moving to Canberra to play at the Australian Institute of Sport.
She enrolled at VU last year and represented the University in women's basketball at the Australian University Games in August. She was also part of a bronze-medal winning team at the World University Games in Shenzhen China. Cumming played her first game with the Australian women's Opals team on a tour of China earlier this year.
As part of the Sport Awards, the University also inducted Brad Johnson into its Sport Hall of Fame. Johnson was captain of the AFL's Western Bulldogs from 2006-2010 and a VU Bachelor of Arts graduate in 1998.
