Best of the best: Vote for Wollongong’s greatest athlete ever
Some of our finest sporting exports were born and bred in the modest coastal city of Wollongong. Check the full list of the region’s 14 best ever athletes, and VOTE NOW for your top choice.
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At the heart of New South Wales’ south coast is the city of Wollongong, home to its arts, coastal views, and a breeding ground for world class athletes.
This hotspot for high-performance is not restricted to a certain singular sport however, as the sea of talent varies from track to field to racecourse to pool and beyond.
We have narrowed the field down to the top 14 athletes born in the Wollongong area. See the full list below, and don’t forget to have your say at the end.
BRETT LEE
Humble Wollongong beginnings alongside his brother and fellow cricketer Shane, Brett Lee grew to fame as one of Australia’s most notorious fast bowlers of the 21st century.
First playing his juniors out of Oak Flat Rats in Shellharbour, ‘Bizza’ is regarded among the fastest, if not arguably the fastest bowler of all time, who at his peak was regularly clocking frightening speeds of over 150km/h out of the right hand.
Lee worked a decorated career with countless individual awards and records, such as being the first player in T20I cricket to take a hat-trick.
He took over 300 test wickets and over 350 ODI wickets in his storeyed career. Staggering numbers.
And while his career was no doubt defined by his wicked bowling, Lee was handy enough with the bat as well, more than capable of producing crucial late runs down the order.
Lee announced his retirement from the sport after the 2014-15 Big Bash season, leaving behind a legacy of wicket-taking and high-energy celebrations, often followed by a trademark grin.
He has since worked on the broadcast side of things for the sport, often appearing in commentary. He also worked as a bowling coach for Ireland and Sri Lanka.
BRETT AND GLEN STEWART
In life before Tom and Jake Trbojevic, the Stewart brothers were the dominant brother pairing of the Manly Sea Eagles.
The duo, now in their late 30s, played junior football out of Illawarra for the Western Suburbs Red Devils, before heading up the coast to the beautiful Northern Beaches of Sydney to align with the maroon and white.
Both debuting in the NRL midway through the 2003 season, both brothers played pivotal roles in Manly’s 2008 and 2011 premiership winning teams.
Brett ‘Snake’ Stewart made his name as one of the league’s most frightening fullbacks, earning the nickname as the ‘Prince of Brookvale’ and rivalling the great Billy Slater for the game’s best no.1 during his peak years.
Brother Glenn was a pivotal presence in the Manly second row for a number of years, capping a stellar 2011 season by receiving the Clive Churchill medal in Manly’s grand final victory over the New Zealand Warriors.
Both brothers also represented both New South Wales and Australia on multiple occasions.
These days, Brett shares the ownership of a Japanese restaurant in Melbourne, while Glenn lives his post-footy life out of the media.
EMMA MCKEON
One of the nation’s most decorated swimmers comes right from the heart of Wollongong, attending The Illawarra Grammar School alongside sister Kaitlin and fellow-Olympian brother David.
The McKeon clan is spoiled with athletic genes, with father Ron McKeon a two-time Olympian himself, mother Susie a Commonwealth Games representative, and uncle Rob Woodhouse another two-time Olympian.
Emma has to be the pick of the bunch however, as her results in the pool have left her in company with some of the greatest achievers our nation has ever seen.
11 Olympics medals, 5 of which are gold and 2 of them in individual events at the 2020 Tokyo games. A staggering 14 Commonwealth gold medals are also among her elite collection.
At the time of writing Emma holds Olympic records in the 50m and 100m freestyle, an Olympic record for the 4x100m medley relay, and is also part of the world record holding Australian women’s 4x100m freestyle relay, achieving this feat at the Tokyo Olympics.
Now at the age of 28, Wollongong’s queen of the pool has already publicly stated she’ll be back in action at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
LUKE WILKSHIRE
It doesn’t get more homegrown than former Socceroo Luke Wilkshire.
Born and bred in Wollongong, Wilkshere played his juniors for Albion Park and then the Wollongong Wolves alongside another former Australian international and Wollongong export in Mile Sterjovski.
The right-back would go on to be a multi-club player among some of Europe’s biggest leagues, starting his journey at Middlesbrough, a club with strong Australian heritage having housed some of our nation’s finest through the years, notably Mark Viduka, Mark Schwarzer, Paul Okon, and current player Riley McGree.
Wilkshire’s longest periods at clubs would be his multi-year spells at Bristol City in England, and Dynamo Moscow in Russia.
Wilkshire would wear Socceroo colours 80 times at the highest level, making appearances in winning fixtures at the 2006 and 2010 FIFA World Cups.
Having travelled the world to play the game, Wilkshire would return to Wollongong in 2018 for one final season at his boyhood club, and having hung up the boots is now a part of the coaching staff for the NPL side.
He’s also recently been a prominent figure in the coverage of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
ALEXANDER VOLKANOVSKI
A global superstar today, but you might not have picked it if you saw him walking the corridors of Lake Illawarra High School in the 2000s.
Coming from a family of concreters, Volkanovski followed this path when he graduated from his secondary education.
And while you might assume there was mixed martial arts training happening throughout this time, it was footy that had Volkanovski making a name for himself, playing semi-professionally for the Warilla Gorillas in the South Coast Rugby League. He received the Mick Kronin medal in the 2010 for being the best player in the league.
While the front-rower was clearly adept to the game, at the age of 23 he stopped tackling and started grappling, deciding to fully commit to his mixed martial arts training.
From there it has been only up. Volkanovski made his UFC debut in November 2016, and has gone 12 fights undefeated in the company.
His biggest highlight fight will have no doubt been his unanimous decision victory over Max Holloway in December 2019 to win the UFC Featherweight Championship, a title which he has successfully defended four times and holds to this day, justifying the nickname of Alexander ‘The Great’.
Volkanovski remains a coach at the Freestyle Fighting Gym in Windang, Illawarra, where he learnt much of his early craft.
TROY SACHS
Widely considered as one of the most dominant wheelchair basketball players Australia and the sport itself has seen.
Born in Bulli, North Wollongong, Sachs had his leg amputated below the knee before he had turned three, as he was born without a tibia and with a deformed right foot.
As a fifteen year old he was introduced to the world of wheelchair basketball, which was very much in its developmental phase. His family would drive him on a five-hour round trip to get him and his brother to the nearest training facility multiple times a week.
It was clear he had the talent though, as he would make his Paralympic debut in Barcelona in 1992, just two years after picking up the sport.
Playing as a centre throughout his career, Sachs’s career best figures came in the 1996 Paralympic final against Great Britain in Atlanta, where he led his team to gold with a massive 42 point performance. Big-game player.
His medal tally would grow in the following years, earning silver in Athens 2004 and gold again in Beijing 2008, which remains the last gold Australia have in the event.
Having travelled all across Europe and the US for his club basketball, Sachs retired in 2010, moving on to coaching for NSW juniors, as well as running the Blues Wheelchair Basketball Club, a grassroots development program for all ages of the sport.
Sachs was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2017 and the Australian Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019.
WAYNE GARDNER
Another Wollongong born athlete this time in the world of motorsport.
Gardner grew a strong passion for the world of motorbikes at a young age, competing in his first race at the age of thirteen. This would prompt him into leaving school to chase his dreams.
At the age of seventeen, Gardner began his professional racing career, adopting a highly aggressive and reckless style of riding, very much a ‘leave it all out on the track’ approach.
Once Gardner managed to refine this mentality and become a more intelligent racer, the rewards were tangible.
A decorated career on two-wheels led him to 18 wins and 51 podiums across nine years of Grand Prix racing.
It was clear that the hardman mentality shown early on his career still lingered as he developed as a driver, famously winning the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix at Phillip Island in 1989 with a broken wrist bone, one year after winning the inaugural event. This against the odds victory truly established Gardner as one of the sport’s best.
Following retirement from motorcycle racing, Gardner moved on to four-wheel motorsport, where he twice finished on the podium in the Bathurst 1000.
Gardner’s career efforts saw him inducted into The Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1991.
KERRYN MCCANN
Another Berri born local who captured the hearts of the nation more than once through the art of the marathon.
McCann had a knack for long distances at a young age, winning her primary school cross country championships in 1979.
At the age of eighteen she won her first Australian championship events in the one mile and marathon.
This would prompt the jump up to the Commonwealth Games where for a while she performed well but not well enough to trouble the leaders.
Her best career performance would come in the Chicago marathon, where her 2:26:04 run gave her bronze and remained her peak career time.
This performance must have inspired her for the Commonwealth Games in Manchester a year later, where a time of 2:30:05 was good enough to see the Australian to the peak of the mountain with Commonwealth gold.
Four years later, and a mother of three by this point, she would defend her title in Melbourne, in a thrilling race which saw six lead changes in the final two kilometres.
McCann lost her ongoing battle with breast cancer in 2008. She is remembered by her comrades as a warm and friendly competitor.
BEN HORNBY
A one-club player and a one-city man. As loyal as they come.
Playing juniors out of Corrimal Cougars, Hornby was a useful asset for the duration of his career, due to his flexibility in playing both within the halves and in fullback.
The utility played the bulk of his career with the no.7 jersey however, and was a faithful servant to the St George Illawarra Dragons from 2000 to 2012, earning representative stripes for both New South Wales and Australia in the process.
Hornby would be appointed club captain by Wayne Bennett in 2009, leading his club to a minor premiership that year, before winning the ultimate prize a year later, as his side defeated the Sydney Roosters in the 2010 grand final.
Hornby called it quits on his career in 2012, diving straight into junior coaching at the club, before following Wayne Bennett to the South Sydney Rabbitohs as an assistant coach.
FLYNN OGILVIE
The Ogilvie clan are hockey through and through, becoming synonymous with the sport within Wollongong.
Flynn, alongside his three brothers and two sisters, all attended the University of Wollongong and were a part of the hockey club there.
From here, Flynn has excelled and has been a staple of the Australian Kookaburras national team since his debut in 2014.
It is understood that much of Ogilvie’s mentoring came from fellow Wollongong resident and former Kookaburra Tristan ‘T-Bag’ White.
While being an outdoor player, Ogilvie will have loved the opportunity to play alongside brothers Heath and Kurt at the 2015 FIH Indoor World Cup in Germany.
The midfielder now has nearly a decade of professional experience under his belt, with accolades to match it.
Commonwealth gold in 2018 and 2022, silver in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, 2x Oceania Cups, FIH Pro League championship in 2019, the list goes on for Ogilvie.
Currently playing for the NSW Waratahs, Ogilvie will no doubt be itching for Olympic gold come Paris in two years time.
SCOTT CHIPPERFIELD
Not the most physically imposing, but a versatile workhorse with a killer left-foot that any club would be happy to have.
The Wollongong Wolves don’t have an honour board of sorts, but if there was one you’d think Chipperfield would be right up there.
Predominantly a left-midfielder, Chipperfield played five seasons for the Wolves to commence his professional career.
During his early years, he would work part-time as a bus driver around Wollongong, often having to rush from his job to make his football games in time.
Eventually he was able to commit to focusing on football, and was a pivotal player in back to back National Soccer League titles for the Wolves.
Chipperfield transferred to FC Basel in Switzerland in 2001 where he would play the bulk of his career, netting 69 goals in his time at the club.
Chipperfield made appearances in every World Cup game for the Socceroos at both Germany in 2006 and South Africa in 2010.
Since retiring Chipperfield returned to his hometown for a year as head coach of the Illawarra Stingrays, before moving in to a director role at his football academy Chippers Finishing School.
BEVERLEY WHITFIELD
Another Olympic gold medallist in Wollongong’s history comes from the late Beverley Whitfield.
Whitfield was a breaststroke specialist, having trained from a young age under Terry Gathercole, who was widely considered the most elite coach of the stroke in Australia at the time.
At the age of sixteen, Whitfield won Commonwealth gold in Edinburgh in both the 100m and 200m events, but her sights were still set on the Munich games two years later.
She clinched a bronze medal in the 100m event, and was expected to finish behind the same leading pack in the 200m event.
This seemed to be the case as the race commenced as well, as her opponents took massive early leads. However, Whitfield capitalised on a tiring field to come back in the last 20m and clinch gold for her country in an inspiring performance.
Whitfield passed away in 1996 at the age of 42, seven years after being inducted in to the Sport Australia Hall of Fame.
KAREN MURPHY
Australia’s ‘Queen of the Green’.
Murphy stepped into the sport at the age of 11 to simply play along with her father.
A 22 year career later and she is arguably our most decorated lawn bowls representative.
She became Australia’s first bowler to compete in five different Commonwealth Games, highlighted by her gold medal in the doubles event on home soil in Melbourne 2006.
Murphy was at her high-achieving best in the Asia Pacific Championships, with a remarkable 8 out of 13 medals in her collection from this tournament being gold.
A testament to her presence in the Australian sporting scene was the honour bestowed upon her of reciting the Athlete’s Oath at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.
Naturally, she was one of the first to be inducted into the Bowls Australia Hall of Fame at the inaugural ceremony in 2011.
A true master of her craft.
Are there any Wollongong sporting greats we’ve missed? Let us know in the comments below.
Don’t forget to vote for your favourite athlete in the poll below.
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