Sport offers great opportunities, but if young people are balancing the demands of elite sport representation with the academic requirements of the education system, life can be very demanding.

They are either training or competing, they are here one day and overseas the next. Are there special rules allowing them to study

when they are in the middle of trying to qualify for the Olympic or Commonwealth Games?

This is where Canberra can stand up and be proud of one of its unique opportunities for young athletes who wish to gain an education while still advancing their career in sport.

The University of Canberra Senior Secondary College Lake Ginninderra (formerly Lake Ginninderra

College), will this week unveil its Top 25 athletes to be inducted into the college’s 25-year Hall of Fame.

The naming of these athletes demonstrates the role that Canberra is playing in educating a number of the biggest names not only in Australian sport, but on the world stage.

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Canberra-based Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holders were initially schooled at Dickson College before Lake Ginninderra College was opened in 1987.

Since then, almost 1000 AIS athletes have attended and graduated from the college.

They all complete the ACT Certification within a specialised program. Athletes work with mentors to ensure that they don’t fall behind in their academic work.

In some cases, athletes missed entire terms but were given flexibility to catch up.

Understandably, the focus is not on academic attainment at that time, with their future already mapped out on the world sporting stage. The need to understand the complexities of Shakespeare or apply logarithmic equations can come later.

These days, most sports wrap their athletes in “cotton wool”, preventing them from competing in school sport – but it wasn’t always the case. Take, for example, Mark Viduka who lined up alongside his Lake Ginninderra soccer team mates, or Petria Thomas and Daniel Marsden, at the school swimming carnival. There’s also basketball players Shane Heal, Patrick Mills, and volleyballer Ben Hardy, who also competed at the college level.

It is difficult to imagine an Australian school with a greater representation in Olympic and world sport.

The Lake Ginninderra Top 25 inducted into the College’s Hall of Fame reads like a “who’s who” of Australian sport: soccer stars, Viduka, Lucas Neill and Craig Moore; swimmers, Thomas, Adam Pine and Linley Frame; tennis player, Todd Woodbridge; archery’s Tim Cuddihy; gymnast, Philippe Rizzo; basketballers Andrew Bogut, Lauren Jackson, Mills, Penny Taylor and Liz Cambage. All but five players from the Opal’s part three Olympic Games’ teams attended the college. Other greats include volleyballer, Ben Hardy – the list goes on and on. Some athletes yet to be inducted include Kevin Muscat, Sarah Ryan and Brennon Dowrick.

Many of these athletes had been parachuted into Canberra because of their sporting prowess, but the athletes have developed a close affinity with the college for which the institution can be proud, along with all of Canberra.