APS Member Groups

Award of Distinction

Each year, the APS College of Sport Psychologists grants an Award of Distinction to a a candidate of exceptional merit. The purpose of the award is to recognise the importance and significance of an individual's contribution to the specialist field of sport psychology, and for significant contributions to the College over a number of years.

The 2008 recipient of the COSP Award of Distinction is Sandy Gordon.  

Alexander (Sandy) Gordon became a member of the College of Sport Psychologists in 1994, and served as National Chair for two terms, from 1998 to 2002. He also served as Chair of the WA Section of COSP from 1996-2002, and has returned as a member of the National Committee in 2008. He was National Chair at the time of the successful bid to host the International Society of Sport Psychology’s (ISSP) 11^th World Congress of Sport Psychology, Australia’s second ever World Psychology Congress, and was an member of the Conference Organising Committee for the event, which was held in Sydney in 2005. 

In addition to his work with COSP, Sandy has made a significant contribution to the activities of the APS, and was elected to Fellowship of the Society in 2004. He was a member of the WA branch of the APS from 1994 to 2003 and was part of the Organising Committee for the 2003 Annual APS Conference. He was a founder member of National Executive Committee of the APS Interest Group in Coaching Psychology (IGCP) from 2002 to 2004, and served on the WA IGCP Committee during the same period. Since 1994 he has conducted at least one PD activity each year to local or National members of either CoSP or IGCP. 

Sandy has made a substantial contribution to the discipline and practice of sport psychology. In his role at the University of Western Australia, he has taught numerous undergraduate and postgraduate classes in exercise and sport psychology and has been actively involved in fostering the research of Honours, Masters, and Doctoral students. He has demonstrated considerable expertise and scholarship in the area of Exercise and Sport Psychology. He has authored or co-authored one co-edited book, 21 book chapters, 60 articles for publication in refereed and non-refereed/professional journals, three major book reviews, 25 conference publications, 70 conference presentations, and 35 invited keynote addresses. In addition, he has authored or co-authored 10 funded and 15 unfunded grant proposals, is a regular reviewer for 11 periodicals, and serves on Editorial Boards of two others.

Since 1987 Sandy has coordinated and taught education programs for community and elite coaches and psychologists in Bangladesh, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, UK and Zimbabwe as well as in Australia.  

Sandy is a worthy recipient of the APS College of Sport Psychologists Award of Distinction for 2008.

Previous Award Recipients 

Previous recipients of the award are listed below, and biographical details are available at Previous Award Recipients.