Sacha Wainwright
Sacha Wainright, one of Canberra’s highest profiled and most capped football players, was inducted into the Capital Football Hall of Fame in 2010.
Born in Canberra in 1972, Sacha Wainwright played Australia Rules football for an all-boys team in Canberra from eight years old and then started playing football at age 11 while living in the United States.
Returning to Canberra aged 14 in 1986, she joined Western Creek Soccer Club and progressed through the ACT representative schools, youth and senior teams, representing the ACT for over 18 years.
She was an ACT Academy of Sport scholarship holder for approximately ten years and an AIS scholarship holder for about seven years. Sacha progressed through the Young Matildas to the Matildas and earned her first international cap against Russia in 1994 at age 22.
As the holder of Matildas international cap number 76, Sacha represented Australia at senior level for over 12 years with 65 A-international caps including two World Cups and two Olympics.
She was the vice-captain of the Matildas between 2002 and 2004 and captain of the Canberra Eclipse in the former Women’s National League including when Canberra became National League Champions in 2002.
Sacha retired from international level football after the Athens Olympic Games in 2004.
Her record throughout her 18 years of football at an elite level is all the more remarkable as she managed a busy workload as an elite athlete with school, law studies at university and practicing as a lawyer.
In 2000, Sasha received the Australia Sports Medal for contribution to Australian sport. A decade later, she was inducted into the ACT Sport Hall of Fame and Capital Football Hall of Fame.
