The 2026 Women in Sport Photo Action Awards ("WISPAA") photography competition is conducted by Women Sport Australia Inc ("WSA").

Set out below are the terms and conditions for entering the WISPAA competition. ·· Information on how to enter and on prizes form part of the terms and conditions.

Entry into this competition deems acceptance of these terms and conditions.

Categories

In 2026, there are three WISPAA categories for which awards will be given. These categories are:

(a) Professional photographers;

(b) Amateur photographers; and

(c) Female photographers.

Category descriptions

Professional photographers:
There will be one winner and two runner-up awards given for action photos that meet the qualifying criteria set out below taken by professional photographers.

A "professional photographer" is a photographer who is employed or contracted to take photos or who otherwise sells photos for commercial gain, including via online channels.

Each entrant will be asked to identify as a professional or amateur photographer, although WSA retains its discretion to recategorise any photographer into a different category.

Amateur photographers:
There will be one winner and two runner-up awards given for action photos that meet the qualifying criteria set out below taken by amateur photographers.

An "amateur photographer" is a photographer who is not employed or contracted to take photos or has sold them for commercial gain including via online channels.

Female Photographers:
There will be one winner and two runner-up awards given for action photos that meet the qualifying criteria set out below taken by a female photographer.

For the purposes of this award category, WSA follows the Australian Government Guidelines on the Recognition of Sex and Gender (published by the Attorney-General's Department in July 2013 and updated November 2015). These guidelines indicate "the Australian Government recognises that individuals may identify and be recognised within the community as a gender other than the sex they were assigned at birth or during infancy, or as a gender which is not exclusively male or female. This should be recognised and reflected in their personal records held by Australian Government departments and agencies."

What is an "action photo"?

An action photo means a photo of a woman or women actively participating in sport in Australia, subject to the qualifying criteria set out below.

Entry

Entry is free.

In 2026, each photographer can submit a maximum of five photos in one of the categories that applies to them.

Female Photographers may apply in one or two categories which may include;

• Only Female Photographer category;
• Only Professional category or Amateur category pending other criteria;
• Professional category and Female Photographer category;
• Amateur category and Female Photographer category.

To qualify, entrants must:

• Submit:
  • their name, date of birth, postcode, phone contact, email, action photos, and caption identifying the woman/women in each photo; and
  • the date each photo was published, site where each photo was published, the link to published photos if available, or a picture of a tear-out of the published photos;
• Be the creator of any photo he/she enters. Any editing must be the work of the entrant and/or in the professional category the entrant's employer and is limited to cropping and/or resizing as outlined in the qualifying criteria set out below;
• Own the copyright of the photo entered or if the entrant is a professional photographer, the entrant's employer may own the copyright if the employer provides written consent to the photographer to enter the photo subject to these terms and conditions.
• Be an Australian resident;
• Grant WSA a perpetual, non-exclusive, royalty-free and sub-licensable right to use, their submitted photos for promotional purposes:
  • In WSA publicity;
  • In WSA publications and on WSA's website and social media channels;
  • At any future awards exhibition, WSA community/schools exhibitions and at other WSA events;
• Grant WSA partners a limited, non-exclusive and royalty-free right to use the submitted photos in connection with, and for the duration of, the WSA partners' sponsorship of WISPAA (including the awards and any future awards exhibitions) and of WSA and its events for promotional purposes;
• Warrant that they are able to provide the rights granted above and the images are not otherwise restricted by any intellectual property rights or moral rights held by any other individual or organisation or by contractual prohibitions (such as venue conditions of entry);
• Warrant that they have entered in the correct category and, in particular, if the entrant has entered in the amateur category, that they do not sell and have not sold photos for commercial gain; and
• Have the permission of their parent/guardian to enter this competition and provide their personal information for the purposes set out in these terms and conditions, if the entrant is aged under 18 as at the date of entering the competition.

By submitting photos via the entry process, entrants guarantee that all of the entry requirements and photo qualifying criteria have been met.

Photo Qualifying Criteria

To qualify, the photos must:

• Have been taken and published in the qualifying period: 5 May 2025- 30 April 2026;
• Feature a sportswoman or sportswomen actively participating in sport in Australia at any level. The sport can be amateur or professional. Images of women participating in sport outside of Australia may not be entered unless the women featured are representing Australia in international competition (eg: the Olympics);
• Not be subject to any contractual prohibitions that preclude the use of the photos in accordance with the grant of the licence above (e.g., venue conditions of entry);
• Not be in breach of any laws, regulations and rights, e.g., any laws regarding intellectual property (copyright, trademarks, etc), defamation or privacy;
• Not be defamatory, obscene, derogatory, pornographic, sexually inappropriate, contain nudity, aggressive, violent, abusive, harassing, threatening, objectionable or discriminate/vilify any section of the community with respect to race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, origin, sexual preference, mental illness, disability or gender or be otherwise unsuitable for publication as determined solely by WSA;
• Not contain viruses or any software or program that tracks access or usage;
• Not feature any females aged under 18 unless the express written consent of their parent/guardian has been obtained and provided with the submission;
• Not feature any sportswoman or other person who has objected to their image being submitted into the WISPAA competition;
• Not have been edited, filtered or photoshopped, other than for cropping or resizing purposes; and
• Be uploaded with a minimum resolution of 300dpi, JPEG format, with metadata included. Photos must be printable to at least 11x14 (279x354mm).

WSA reserves the right to withdraw or remove from consideration any photo that contravenes these terms and conditions.

Judging Process

Entries open on Wednesday 6 May 2026 and close at 11.59pm on Wednesday 27 May 2026.

Finalists will be announced on Wednesday 17 June 2026. Winners will be announced in mid July 2026 at an awards function in Sydney (date and venue TBC).

Finalists and winners will be advised by their supplied phone/email and will be invited to the awards function. Finalists will be responsible for their own costs associated with travelling to the Sydney awards function.

Judges will primarily judge photos on the basis of how they display athleticism, strength and skill of a woman or women participating in sport. The judges will also take into account secondary considerations of technical quality, creativity, composition, use of colour, lighting, storytelling and impact.

Chance plays no part in determining the winner. The judges' decision is final and binding and no correspondence will be entered into.

Winners and runner up photographers will provide reasonable cooperation to WSA to act as ambassadors to promote the WISPAA competition for the 12 months following announcement of their awards. WSA will also provide an opportunity for winners, runners up and finalists in the Female Photographer and Amateur categories to submit their photos for distribution via the WSA channel on the www.unsplash.com platform or other WSA photo publication platforms.

Prizes

The overall winners in each of the categories as determined by the judges will be awarded the following prize:

Professional category: $850 cash

Amateur category: $850 cash

Female Photographer category: $850 cash

WSA reserves the right to supplement cash prizes with additional prize elements and will announce any additions to the prizes prior to, or at, the awards function in July 2026.

Privacy

WSA will collect and handle personal information in accordance with its Privacy Policy available at https://www.womensportaustralia.com.au/.

General

To the extent of any inconsistency between these terms and conditions and any other reference to this competition, these terms and conditions prevail.

WSA reserves the right to amend these terms and conditions including, without limitation, competition dates or entry times. WSA may also cancel or suspend this competition if an event beyond the control of WSA corrupts or affects the administration security, fairness, integrity or proper conduct of this competition.

WSA will disqualify any individual who has tampered with the entry process or any other aspect of this competition.

WSA reserves the right, at any time, to verify the validity of entries and entrants (including but not limited to entrant identity and location of photos) and disqualify any entrant who is not an eligible entrant or who submits an entry that is not in accordance with these terms and conditions.

These terms and conditions are governed by the laws of the State of Victoria and each entrant agrees to submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Victoria.