Professional boxer Alex Winwood has been named the 2024 National NAIDOC Sportsperson of the Year.
The National NAIDOC Awards bring hundreds of First Nations people together each year to celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s community contributions and achievements.
Winwood is on track to becoming the fastest Australian man to achieve the title of boxing world champion.
From training in a small tin shed in his coach’s backyard to becoming the number two ranked boxer in the world in his weight class, Nyoongar man Alex Winwood has achieved plenty in his 11 years of boxing.
However, standing up in front of 1,800 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from across the country, and accepting honours as the 2024 National NAIDOC Sportsperson of the year, is an achievement he’ll never forget.
“That might have been one of the most nervous moments for me, actually … getting up there and seeing how vast the room was full of brilliant people — it took me back a little bit,” he said.
Selected from a pool of almost 200 nominees, the 27-year-old professional boxer was joined by 28 finalists across 10 categories in Adelaide, on Kaurna country, for the 2024 National NAIDOC Awards Ceremony on Saturday night.
The NAIDOC awards night recognises the outstanding contributions that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make to improve the lives of people in their communities and beyond, and to promote First Nation’s issues in the wider community.
“It was just overwhelming and awesome to see all the mob come together and us celebrating together,” Winwood said.
Winwood first picked up boxing at the age of 16 to keep up his fitness during the football off season, and said his then-boxing coach and mentor convinced him to keep coming back.
“I didn’t really want to go, it was just too hard compared to footy,” he said.
“But … this man kind of took me under his wing and treated me like his son so that’s pretty much why I was there every day.”
The rest was history, with Winwood going on to have 58 amateur fights, competing in multiple world championships, and representing Australia in the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo and the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
“That kind of brought my [amateur] career to the end after that and I decided to turn professional and move states and pursue it as a job,” he said.
Nine months on from his professional debut at the end of 2022, Winwood now carries a 4-0 record in the minimum weight boxing division and is on track to becoming the fastest Australian man to achieve the title of world champion.
Idolising former professional boxers like Anthony Mundine and Lionel Rose, Winwood said he too hoped to inspire those in his community.
“I was a kid that was kind of not on the best path and I had some great mentors coming into my life, and I see the huge value in it,” he said.
“I just want the young ones to have a chance at life and pursue their goals and dreams.”
But his biggest inspiration and strength comes from his wife, who has been with him his entire boxing career.
“She has pretty much been the backbone for me ever since I started boxing,” he said.
“We actually met through boxing and boxing has just been revolving around our life for the last 11 years since we’ve been together.
“She’s definitely someone that I try to work my best for to make her proud.”
Winwood is currently ranked second in the world by the World Boxing Council, fifth by the International Boxing Federation, and eighth by the World Boxing Organisation.
He said his next professional fight was set to be announced within the week.
Catch up on our NAIDOC Week content at the abc.net.au Indigenous page and on ABC iView.
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