Mia Gross

BIOGRAPHY

A brilliant junior sprinter, Mia Gross has overcome some challenging years to make her senior Australian team debut at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.

Initially selected as a relay reserve for the Commonwealth Games, she was added late to the team following a withdrawal. She ran first leg on the Australian relay team in the heats and switched to the anchor for the final. The team placed a brilliant fourth, but 11 months later, in July 2023, the Australian team were elevated to the bronze medal following the disqualification of the winners Nigeria for a doping violation.

After a solid 2023 campaign which included races in Europe, Mia’s terrific 2024 season may have been overshadowed by Torrie Lewis. Mia placed a good second in the key World Athletics point scoring races – the Nationals and Oceania Championships. Then in June in Europe she clocked a superb new 200m PB of 22.81 at high altitude in Sestriere in Italy. It elevated her to number 11 Australian all-time.

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Mia Gross began her athletic journey aged 9 at Geelong Little Athletics but grew up competing in any and almost every sport available to her. These include soccer, netball, volleyball, hockey, cricket, softball, gymnastics, cross country, triathlons and badminton. Mia would find herself most interested in both athletics and soccer, continuing to participate in both during her school years. She recalled being indecisive on which sport she wanted to pursue further, figuring continuing both simultaneously to be too difficult; following her selection for the 2017 Youth Commonwealth Games held in the Bahamas, at age 16 she would then decide to commit solely to Athletics, focusing on sprints. Her times in 2017 had been super impressive, 11.71 (100m), 23.83 (200m) and 54.08 (400m).

In 2018 she continued to progress with PBs in the 200m and winning the National U20 sprint double. Selected for the World Juniors, she made the 200m semi-final and helped the 4x100m relay to the final, where they broke the National record.

The next year, 2019 Mia again won the National U20 sprint double. In 2020 she ran a 100m PB, but COVID would cancel out the season. However, she has been battling some injuries and illness and they continued in 2020 and 2021.
“The last three seasons haven’t been kind to me with ongoing hamstrings issues and two foot stress fractures ruling me out of nationals, then in 2021 I suffered a severe kidney infection which certainly knocked me around and then pancreatitis a few weeks after and bowel issues resulting in having a colonoscopy and gastroscopy.”

After she moved to Melbourne for work, she found her way to coach John Nicolosi and his squad.
“The training was really nothing like I had previously done as it was generally more acceleration/power based…I was struggling to move after the first session but I loved every bit of it.”
Under coach Nicolosi, her 2022 season certainly has been a breakthrough for Mia. In one race her 100m PB dropped  from 11.70 to 11.39. But it was not a one off, she placed third at Nationals in a time of 11.43.

In late May she was on the Gold Coast at the National relay camp when she fell ill with Viral gastroenteritis and requiring hospitalisation. Named as a reserve for the relay for the Commonwealth Games, when Riley Day withdrew in late July, she was added to the team.

Favourite thing about competing: I love the feeling of racing fast, and being strong and I believe there is no other sort of happiness than crossing a line knowing you have run fast and executed a race. You can’t beat that adrenaline rush when all the hard work starts to pay off…Hero: I never had a fixation on one athlete growing up – I just idolise strong women and women in sport that have paved the way for the women of today eg. Tamsyn Lewis, Simone Biles, Alison Felix, Cathy Freeman, Kerryn McCann…Most Influential Person: 100% Mum. She would always make my siblings and I active daily and often turned things into a bit of a competition we all loved. I grew up in Torquay, and ever Sunday, we rode our bikes past Bells Beach, stopped at all the stairs, climbed them twice, and kept going. I have a younger sister who is 10 years younger than me and my mum used to run with me even when she was pregnant with my sister just so that I would have someone to run with. She is my number one supporter…Famous Relative: My cousin (mum’s side) Jo King was a two-time world champion in the triathlon – She was inducted into the International Triathlon Union’s Hall of Fame in 2019…Occupation: personal trainer at Gym Melbourne (Royal Children’s Hospital)…Hometown: raised in Torquay in regional Victoria…Biggest challenge you faced: I have been injured every year since I was 13 years old, so I have had many injuries. I am also one who seems to get really sick eg. grew an abscess on my kidney on year and the next my appendix burst on my fallopian tube…Family: her younger sister, Olivia Gross placed second at the Australian championships in the pole vault and has a PB 4.20m.