Scholarship recipient Shaw of her cycling goals

When the international stage of the Olympic Games is set in Brisbane in 2032, she is determined to be on it.

The 14-year-old Shepparton cyclist lives and breathes her sport.

Already, she has represented Victoria on the national stage (in 2024) and will again in a few weeks at the All Australian Junior National Championships after getting podium places in three races at the state championships last weekend.

Isla was recognised for her dedication to her discipline by being awarded the 2025 Tom Brewer Scholarship Award by the Rotary Club of Shepparton last month.

Her passion for the sport grew quicker than the competitive rider races after a come-and-try day at Shepparton Velodrome when she was nine years old.

Her mum, Laura Smithers-Shaw, said she and her husband, Stuart Shaw, had taken their three girls to the session, where Isla watched her sisters ride for some 90 minutes from the sidelines.

“She’d point-blank refused to get on the bike and then with about five minutes to go, we said to her one last time, ‘Do you want to have a go?’,” Ms Smithers-Shaw said.

“And she said, ‘(sigh) if I have to’, and then we couldn’t get her off it.”

When the Year 9 Notre Dame College student first took to the velodrome, she discovered she was a natural, beating her sister in a race.

As she kept trying to triumph over her siblings, Isla fell in love with the sport itself.

She said she was hooked instantly and from that day she couldn’t wait for Tuesday to come around each week so she could get back on the bike.

Five years, one pandemic and a knee construction later, she is now coached by Shepparton Olympian Steve Fairless.

She trains six days a week.

And she’s being nominated for — and winning — scholarships.

The Tom Brewer Sport Scholarship was created to recognise Mr Brewer’s enormous contribution to the Rotary Club of Shepparton throughout many years.

Mr Brewer was an all-round sportsperson who played tennis, golf and table tennis, and supported many aspiring athletes.

Isla’s name was put forward for the scholarship by a member of Ms Smithers-Shaw’s riding group, Chris Segrave, whom Isla rides with one morning a week.

“I was quite happy (when I learned I’d been chosen for the scholarship) to think that other people were thinking about me and wanting to donate,” Isla said.

“I loved it; it was a good feeling.”

The scholarship — worth $2000, which will be put towards race entry fees, insurance, racing gear and travel to events — was presented to Isla by Mr Brewer’s sister, Kath Treacy, at a Rotary dinner at Kialla’s Peppermill Inn.

Isla said she drew inspiration close to home, with her Ironman mum sharing her passion for cycling.

“It’s good to look up to Mum and see that I can still be really good even at that age,” Isla said.

In terms of celebrity idols, Isla closely follows the careers of Dutch cyclist Demi Vollering and Australian cyclist and gold medallist Grace Brown, whose Victorian team she dreams of being in one day.

Brown was a celebrity guest at one of Isla’s races, where the emerging athlete got a photo with her hero and a taste of what holding a gold medal felt like.

Isla said the medal was heavy and “massive” and that she’d like to have her own one day.

“I’d love to be standing on the podium. Everyone watching. That’d be a really good feeling,” she said.

“The 2032 Olympics in Brisbane, I’ll be prime age, I’ll be 22. Hopefully, I can be at my peak then.”

Isla said cyclists generally peaked between 18 and 30 and was hopeful that she would be on the Australian team and competing at the 2032 Olympics on her home soil.