Top athletes lift nation’s spirits

Confined to home for much of 2021, Australians relished the success and talent of the nation’s leading sports men and women more than ever. Among many stellar achievements, three stood out. In July, in a tough three-set final against big-serving Czech star Karolina Pliskova, Ash Barty, 25, from Ipswich, west of Brisbane, became Australia’s first women’s singles champion at Wimbledon since her mentor and hero, Evonne Goolagong Cawley, hoisted the treasured Venus Rosewater Dish in 1980.

Later in July, as the nation continued to battle the Delta variant of Covid-19, attention turned to the long-postponed Tokyo Olympic Games where Australia, like so often in the past, made its mark in the pool. Amid the gold rush, Emma McKeon, 27, from Wollongong, won seven medals, four of them gold, to become the nation’s most decorated Olympic swimmer, ahead of such legends as Ian Thorpe and Dawn Fraser. The breadth and diversity of her program, in distances from 50m to 200m in freestyle and butterfly, including relays, was extraordinary.

More recently, as the Omicron variant of Covid took over, attention turned to the Ashes and newly installed captain Pat Cummins, 28. After helping Australia claim the T20 World Cup in Dubai in November, Cummins returned to take over one of the most important leadership roles in Australia – captain of the Test team, the first fast bowler appointed to the role in 65 years. He was ready – as Australia’s 4-0 Ashes win showed. And he finished the series atop the International Cricket Council’s bowling rankings.

In honouring the world-beating success and good sportsmanship of Barty, McKeon and Cummins, The Weekend Australian is honoured to award them our top accolade, naming them our Australians of the Year. They emerged from an impressive field of candidates, nominated by readers for going the extra mile at work and in their own time.

Barty, McKeon and Cummins are young, inspirational role models, both in competition and away from it. As Barty says: “Even when I am travelling, I am very connected to home.’’ The Australian spirit is their spirit; the nation is proud of them; they shone bright when we needed it most.