Mia Gross

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

Mia began her athletic journey aged nine 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 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.

She ran the 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.