SPORT AUSTRALIA HALL OF FAME ANNOUNCES EIGHT NEW INDUCTEES 

The nation’s most prestigious sporting organisation has eight new members, with the Sport Australia Hall of Fame today proudly announcing a stellar group of Inductees for 2024.

Among the diverse list of newcomers are Olympic and Paralympic gold medallists, champions of both team and individual sports, and celebrated administrators. The Inductees’ exceptional achievements and contributions are matched by exemplary reputations both nationally and internationally.

The new Athlete Members are three-time world surfing champion Mick Fanning AO; former Kookaburras’ captain Mark Knowles OAM; lawn bowls trailblazer Karen Murphy AM; Olympic hurdles gold medallist Sally Pearson OAM; motor sport superstar Mark Skaife OAM; and dual-sport Paralympics champion Liesl Tesch AM.

Entering SAHOF as General Members are Gerry Ryan OAM, whose impact and philanthropy has extended from cycling across multiple sports, and visionary basketball administrator, the late Betty Watson OAM.

The Inductees will be honoured at the Sport Australia Hall of Fame Gala Dinner, which returns from a four-year hiatus to the Crown Palladium, Melbourne, on November 18.

The honour roll of Inductees into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame features the nation’s biggest sporting names and champions, including Sir Donald Bradman AC, Dawn Fraser AC MBE, Cathy Freeman OAM, Ian Thorpe AM, E.J. “Ted” Whitten OAM, Raelene Boyle AM MBE, Wally Lewis AM, Shane Gould OAM MBE, Sir Jack Brabham AO OBE, Greg Norman AO, Lauren Jackson AO, John Eales AM, Susie O’Neill AM, Rod Laver AC MBE, Bart Cummings AM, Louise Sauvage OAM, Layne Beachley AO and Tim Cahill AO, among other luminaries.

Those in this elite and newly expanded group are our most revered and respected sporting champions; individuals whose collective results on the greatest sporting stages and across the spectrum may not always have attracted headlines but share a common dignity, integrity, courage and humility.

Each member of the class of 2024 has made a significant impact on Australian sport, not just through personal excellence but as a role model for future generations and by helping to foster a strong sporting culture in a nation so proud of its rich sporting history.

Membership as an Athlete Member of the Sport Australia Hall of Fame belongs exclusively to the top echelon of Australian athletes who have achieved the highest honours at the peak level of competition. General Members are recognised for their outstanding achievements in roles that support sports participants.

To be eligible for consideration by the Selection Committee, athletes must be retired from their sport for four years.

Two existing Members will also be elevated to Legend of Australian Sport status in the coming weeks. Sport Australia Hall of Fame Members must be 15 years retired before becoming candidates for elevation to Legend of Australian Sport.

SPORT AUSTRALIA HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES FOR 2024

Mick Fanning AO – Surfing, QLD
Athlete Member
One of Australia’s greatest surfing careers spanned almost two decades, during which Mick Fanning AO overcame personal hardship, injury and even an encounter with a shark. A three-time world champion (2007, 2009 and 2013) who recorded 22 Championship Tour victories, Fanning was named Australian Male Surfer of the Year nine times in 16 years. In 2015, he famously fought off a shark that had become entangled in his leg rope during the J-Bay Open in South Africa. It was a moment that led to Fanning and fellow Australian surfer Julian Wilson, who came to his aid, sharing SAHOF’s Spirit of Sport award for a remarkable act of bravery and mateship. Fanning is a member of the World Surfers’ Hall of Fame and Australian Surfing Hall of Fame.

QUOTE: “Australia produces so many incredible sporting stars and to be honoured as one of those, amongst the greats, I’m pretty flabbergasted, to be honest. It’s not something that we ever look for when we’re doing our sport, but to be acknowledged later in life is very special and I’m very honoured to be able to share it with people who have supported me.  I wasn’t the most talented person, I wasn’t the most gifted, I didn’t have the most money or anything like that, but I just gave it my all.’’

Mark Knowles OAM – Hockey, QLD
Athlete Member
Hailing from Rockhampton in regional Queensland, four-time Olympian Mark Knowles OAM graduated from being one of hockey’s brightest prospects to Australia’s decorated and inspirational captain. In 2004, he was the youngest member of the Kookaburras team that ended decades of Olympic heartache by winning gold in Athens. Knowles would also earn bronze medals in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012, along with two World Cups, four Champions Trophies and four Commonwealth Games gold medals before his retirement in 2018 after more than 300 international caps. He was named World Young Player of the Year in 2007 and World Player of the Year in 2014, his first as Australian captain.

QUOTE: “It’s just an amazing honour for me. I was certainly in a little bit of shock early. I kind of went back to ‘how does a boy from Rockhampton get an honour like this?’. It is the highest accolade that I could possibly achieve as a sportsperson. You’re striving for greatness on the field and you’re trying to always represent yourself and your family in the right way, and I guess this is a reward for all that hard work. It’s a bit of a reward for the sport of hockey as well. I kind of always reflect on myself as a team player and as a team person, and if I’m honest, if you don’t play in great teams and have some success I don’t think I would have got these honours. So for me it’s also a thanks to the sport that’s given me so much.”

Karen Murphy AM – Lawn Bowls, NSW
Athlete Member
Karen Murphy AM is a stereotype-defying trailblazer of the lawn bowls community, who  elevated her sport well beyond its usual reach with her success at the elite level over a 20-plus year career. With gold medal-winning performances at Commonwealth Games and World Championships levels, Murphy donned the green and gold at international level on more than 660 occasions – a testament to her durability and resilience. She won four World Championship gold medals – and two in succession in the singles event, one in pairs and one in fours – plus a silver and three bronze, while also claiming one gold (Melbourne, 2006) and three silver medals across five Commonwealth Games. At the last, on the Gold Coast in 2018, she was chosen to read the Athletes’ Oath.

QUOTE: “I lost my mum (Lorraine, aged 82), only hours before John (Bertrand) called me to tell me the news. Mum had battled brain cancer and I’d been looking after her for a few years and she passed away at 5.57am that day and then John called me at about 11am and told me, and I just burst into tears. I was extremely honoured when I heard the news, to be joining such a wonderful list of athletes across all sports is truly special. I feel incredibly grateful to all those who have been on my journey with me. This award is one which I share with our whole bowls community.”

Sally Pearson OAM – Athletics, QLD
Athlete Member
As one of just nine Australian women ever to win an Olympic track and field gold medal, Sally Pearson (nee McLellan) OAM combined a near-flawless technique with supreme resilience to overcome multiple injury obstacles during her decorated 100m hurdles career. In achieving Olympic greatness (gold in 2012 and silver in 2008) and World Championship success (gold medals in 2011 and 2017 and a silver in 2013), as well as two Commonwealth Games titles, Pearson was the first Australian to be named World Athlete of the Year (2011) and was twice awarded SAHOF’s “The Don” Award, in 2012 and 2014. Her two World Championship triumphs came six years apart in very different circumstances. For the first, she produced a personal best time of 12.28 seconds in a blistering performance in Daegu, South Korea. The second victory, returning self-coached from a four-year absence that denied her the opportunity to defend her Olympic title in Rio in 2016, counts as her proudest individual achievement.

QUOTE: “I don’t think it really has sunk in. It’s so surreal. It feels like it just happens to people  you see on TV. I still feel like that little kid watching these amazing athletes on TV. I still feel like I’m watching the Sydney Olympics and watching Cathy Freeman run. When Steve Hooker won gold in Beijing I was sitting on the sidelines. Even though I won silver I was thinking this is really cool, I’m watching this person, this athlete, just doing amazing things. It’s a bizarre feeling that I’m one of those people now.”

Mark Skaife OAM – Motor Sport, NSW
Athlete Member
Mark Skaife OAM was one of Australian motor sport’s most successful drivers, augmenting six Bathurst 1000 victories from 1991-2010 with five touring car titles, including a stunning hat-trick of V8 Supercars championship crowns from 2002-04 to add to those from 1992 and 1984. Originally from Wyong on the NSW Central Coast, Skaife graduated from an apprenticeship in go-karts while working as a mechanic in his family’s automotive business to become one of motor sport’s greats, known for his daring style and tactical nous. For a time, he shared the most touring car title wins with Dick Johnson and Ian Geoghegan, a record which has since been surpassed by Jamie Whincup. Skaife retired from full-time driving in 2008 but returned to win a sixth Bathurst in 2010 alongside Craig Lowndes. A Supercars and Australian Motor Sport Hall of Famer, Skaife’s other roles have included being a team owner, circuit designer and TV commentator.

QUOTE: “When I looked at the website and started to contemplate people who are in there, it made me honoured to be part of the same group. I’ve been fortunate to be in the motor sport Hall of Fame and the Hall of Fame for Supercars, but in the context of where car racing sits in the wider landscape of sport, and seeing the illustrious motor sport names in there, it’s overwhelming in some ways. I desperately wanted to be the best, I desperately wanted to win each weekend, and I was in terms of preparation in that era the most prepared to do that. So I think that level of commitment was probably the biggest thing that stood out.”

Liesl Tesch AM – Multi-sports (Para-basketball and Para-sailing), NSW
Athlete Member
As one of Australia’s greatest Paralympians, Liesl Tesch AM excelled in two vastly different sports and inspired a generation of able-bodied athletes and athletes with a disability. Having become an incomplete paraplegic – unable to use her lower legs – in a mountain bike accident as a 19-year-old, Tesch initially found her athletic calling in wheelchair basketball, representing Australia in that discipline at five Paralympics, winning silver medals in Sydney (2000) and Athens (2004), as well as a bronze medal in Beijing (2008). Sailing was her next sporting challenge, and Tesch combined with Daniel Fitzgibbon to win back-to-back gold medals in the Two Person Sailing SKUD 18 at the London 2012 Paralympics and Rio 2016 Paralympics, the latter her seventh. Recognised for promoting and facilitating sport for people with disabilities, and now a member of the NSW parliament, Tesch won the inaugural Uncle Kevin Coombs Medal for the Spirit of the Games at the 2016 Australian Paralympic Awards.

Quote: “It’s something that I would never have expected, because this is a space of people who are our national heroes and role models, and I don’t reflect on myself as that at all. I’m just a person going about my life doing the best I can. It’s like I’m going to a place outside of my league. So it’s an amazing honour and something that makes me reflect on my life and my contribution, possibly with tears in my eyes, because it’s not where I see myself. I’m just a person having a crack at life, and having a really good time along the way. I’m still shaking my head. Like, ‘little old me’.”

Gerry Ryan OAM – Administrator, VIC
General Member
Leading businessman and administrator Gerry Ryan OAM has made major contributions to five different sports across more than three decades. Best known for his work in road and track cycling, one of Australia’s most successful and generous businessmen turned his lifelong passion for sport into a commitment to giving sportspeople the chance to live out their dreams. It started with cycling, initially through financial support for Kathy Watt’s quest for Olympic gold in 1992, then as founder of Australia’s first professional cycling team, also by fostering the next generation of Australian cyclists via VIS and AIS programs, and as owner and chairman of the GreenEdge Cycling Team from 2012. Other sports to benefit from Ryan’s time, mentorship and investment include basketball (particularly women’s), horse racing (as a long-time sponsor of the National Jockey’s Trust), Australian football (serving as vice-president of the St Kilda Football Club) and rugby league (as part-owner of the Melbourne Storm).

QUOTE: “I’m still coming to terms with being selected. You never dream of receiving such an honour but I’m so pleased, not just for me but for the people who have been around me to help me achieve this. My family and friends and work colleagues. I’m certainly going to be very proud to be in that room and looking around at the people who are also accepting awards. You have a vision, you have a dream, but certainly I have surpassed what I believed growing up as a boy that I would ever achieve.”

Betty Watson OAM – Basketball (admin), VIC
General Member
Regarded as the “founding mother of women’s basketball” in Australia, Betty Watson OAM created a pathway for generations of athletes of all ages and varying abilities. With her husband Ken, Watson helped to transform basketball at all levels through a commitment to developing women’s sport and fostering junior participation. As the foundation president of the Australian Women’s Basketball Council and its Victorian equivalent, Watson lobbied tirelessly for women’s basketball’s Olympic inclusion, and served as an administrator and team manager for decades in an effort to pursue equal opportunities for women in Australian sport. The WNBL Rookie of the Year and Basketball Victoria’s Female Player of the Year awards are named in honour of Watson, who in 2006 was elevated to legend status in the Australian Basketball Hall of Fame.

QUOTE FROM FORMER OPALS CAPTAIN MICHELE TIMMS: “In 1954, Betty answered the call from FIBA to start women’s basketball in Australia, and what impresses me the most is that she didn’t even have a daughter. In essence we all became her daughters, so she’s really the godmother of women’s basketball. If it wasn’t for the foundations she laid and the work she did, including organising the Australian team to contest the first world championship in Brazil in 1957, we would not be where we are, either with the Opals or the WNBL. We owe Betty a great debt because without her and the contributions of the other trailblazers in that 1957 team, later generations of players would never have been able to follow the path we did. Through a contribution spanning many decades, there was no one more important to our sport than Betty Watson.”

Nominations for induction into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame can be submitted by anyone via the SAHOF website. Each year the Selection Committee picks the newest Hall of Fame Members to join their fellow top echelon of Australian sporting heroes.

Sport Australia Hall of Fame Selection Committee Chair, Bruce McAvaney OAM, said:  “The eight new inductees into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame are a diverse group representing team and individual sports at the highest level.”

“They’ve inspired generations of Australians and provided our country with so much joy. Nothing is obvious when choosing between champions from so many different sports but we know the class of 2024 sits comfortably alongside those who’ve already been recognised in the most prestigious hall of fame in this country.’’

The 2024 Inductees will be celebrated and formally inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame at the Induction and Awards Gala Dinner on Monday 18 November at Crown Palladium in Melbourne. Two existing Members will be elevated to Legends of Australian Sport on the evening, and the winners of the 2024 The Don and The Dawn Awards will be announced.

Limited tickets are still available. To join us for an unforgettable evening celebrating excellence in Australian sport, book here: Gala Dinner Tickets.

The Sport Australia Hall of Fame Induction and Awards program is proudly supported by the Australian Sports Commission incorporating the Australian Institute of Sport, and supported by Ampol, Sportscover, and Deakin University.

For interviews and further information, please contact:

Rebeka Powell, rebeka@stampingground.com.au or 0459 900 045.

Linda Pearce, linda@stampingground.com.au or 0419 539 357.

 

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Photos courtesy Alamy, News Corp Australia & Hamish Blair Photography.