Australian athletics great Sally Pearson has been named among the Sport Australia Hall of Fame’s new inductees for 2024 immortalising her legacy in Australian sport.
Australia’s most prestigious sporting institution, the Sport Australia Hall of Fame (SAHOF), today revealed the eight new members to be inducted in 2024.
Among them is Olympic hurdles gold medallist Sally Pearson OAM, widely considered one of Australia’s greatest track athletes despite numerous injuries curtailing her chances at numerous events throughout her career.
The now-38-year-old has Commonwealth Games, Diamond League, and World Championship gold medals to her name but it is the London 2012 Olympic Games win that is her crowning glory.
Pearson beat out competition in the shape of Team USA’s Dawn Harper and Kellie Wells with an Olympic record time to top the podium and become a national hero, improving on her silver medal in Beijing four years earlier.
SAHOF describes its honour roll of inductees as the country’s “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.”
Pearson is one of nine Australian women to have taken home Olympic gold in athletics in the history of the Games and becomes the 39th track and field athlete to be inducted into the country’s Hall of Fame.
In 2011 she became the first Australian to be named World Athlete of the Year and received SAHOF’s prestigious “The Don” Award in both 2012 and 2014.
“This is a landmark moment for Australian athletics as we celebrate one of our true greats. Sally’s induction into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame is a testament to her extraordinary talent, perseverance and the profound impact she has had on the sport, both in Australia and on the world stage,” said the CEO of Athletics Australia, Simon Hollingsworth.
“She exemplifies what it means to overcome adversity, having set multiple setbacks throughout her career and yet always returned stronger,” continued Hollingsworth.
“Her ability to compete at the highest level has inspired many and her legacy will be felt for generations to come. We are incredibly proud to see her receive this well-deserved recognition and to have her as such a prominent figure in the history of Australian athletics.”
Having won World Championships in 2011 and 2017, achieved Commonwealth Games golds in 2010 and 2014, and secured medals at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, her career is marked by her impressive longevity.
An injury stopped her from defending her 100-metre-hurdling title at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games but she went on to win the London 2017 World Championship 100-metre hurdle race as a self-coached athlete returning to the sport after a four-year injury-induced hiatus.
Pearson and the other seven will be formally inducted at the Sport Australia Hall of Fame Gala Dinner at the Crown Melbourne on 18 November 2024.
“I don’t think it’s really sunk in. It’s so surreal. It feels like it just happens to people you see on TV. I still feel like I’m watching the Sydney Olympics and watching Cathy Freeman run,” said Pearson. “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.”