The Australian’s Australian of the Year: Sport stars Emma McKeon, Ash Barty and Pat Cummins shine through Covid gloom

Emma McKeon, Ash Barty and Pat Cummins share joint honours for lifting our spirits and keeping us sane.

Our Australians of the year, from left, swimmer Emma McKeon, tennis player Ash Barty and cricketer Pat Cummins. Picture: John Feder, James Giles / Vogue Australia

Not much was going right back in Australia when Emma McKeon slipped into the warm-up pool at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre for the first time in mid-July.

Just as things had been pretty bleak at home when Ash Barty dumped her racquet bag beside a back court at London SW19 and began hitting balls in the days before Wimbledon. Things were barely looking up a couple of months later when Pat Cummins marked his run-up in the nets at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi and charged in to begin his T20 World Cup campaign.

Victoria and NSW were in lockdown, borders were closed and the economy was in free-fall as Covid-19 stalked the land. The ­nation was shut down, shut out, divided, distorted and sick of it.

And then, as the Covid malaise seemed at its worst, a little light began to seep into lounge rooms around Australia. Just when we needed it most, three Aussie athletes in quintessential Australian sports – a swimmer, a tennis player and a cricketer – lifted the gloom with the brilliance of their achievements on the world stage.

Barty offered the first ray of sunshine when she overcame Czech Karolina Pliskova in a tough three-set final to win Wimbledon. Then, as the outstanding performer in an Australian team that surpassed all expectations in Tokyo, McKeon became our most successful Olympic athlete, winning four gold medals and three bronze for a total of 11. And finally, Cummins helped Australia to claim the T20 World Cup before coming home to take over the captaincy of the Test team at a moment of crisis and lead his country to triumph in the Ashes.

It is for this vital role in lifting the nation’s spirits, helping to keep us sane, that The Weekend Australian bestows its highest annual honour, our Australian of the Year, jointly on McKeon, Barty and Cummins.

What an honour, says ­McKeon, “to be named alongside Ash Barty and Pat Cummins”.

All three of them throw it straight back at you – rather than being a source of inspiration for the rest of us, they have felt buoyed by support from back home. “I am really grateful for the support that Australia has given me over this last year,” McKeon says. “And winning The Australian’s Australian of the Year really is an honour. I do feel the support that the country has given me, ­especially in my hometown of Wollongong, and I feel very ­fortunate to have this great support from the community.”

Swimmer Emma McKeon. Picture: Getty Images

During her months on the tour, which brought her five WTA titles including Wimbledon, Barty felt the love from home every day.

“Even when I am travelling I am very connected to home,” says Barty, who won her third-round match against Italian Camila Giorgi at the Australian Open on Friday night.

“I spoke to my family every day of the trip last year and my team are from all different parts of Australia so through them I was fairly aware of the different situations in each state and how tough it must have been for so many people.”

McKeon, Barty and Cummins are all the best at what they do: McKeon the 2021 world swimmer of the year; Barty the women’s world No.1 for a third consecutive year; Cummins the No.1 ranked Test bowler. But they are more than that. They are all modest, no-nonsense role models, with ready smiles who aren’t letting any of this go to their heads.

There was a certain amount of tut-tutting when Cummins became the first fast bowler appointed Australia’s full-time Test captain after Tim Paine was caught up in a sexting scandal. Captaincy, it was said, was a job for batters. But from his first moments in the role he seemed born to lead.

In the Ashes he terrorised ­England’s batsmen, finishing the series as the leading wicket-taker with 21 scalps from the four Tests he played.

Off the field, the university-­educated Cummins is an articulate and well-rounded character, speaking out on issues such as racism and climate change.

And he has shown himself to be a leader for our times, a fact clearly illustrated on Sunday when Australia’s first Muslim Test cricketer Usman Khawaja was in danger of being doused in champagne during the Ashes victory celebrations.

Khawaja leapt from the dais to avoid the alcohol spray, in keeping with his strong religious beliefs. Cummins saw what was happening, urged his players to put down their bottles and motioned Khawaja back to his side for the team photograph.

Tennis player Ash Barty. Picture: Mark Stewart

“We’ve got a really diverse bunch of people and you want to celebrate that and make sure everyone feels comfortable being themselves,” Cummins says.

It’s an attitude that flows from Cummins’ approach to leadership. “(My style is) benefit of the doubt, let people be themselves, give them a chance to work out things by themselves,” he says.

In the dark days of late July and early August, a captive audience in Australia turned to the Tokyo Olympics for entertainment and inspiration. There were many Australian heroes – swimmers Ariarne Titmus and Kaylee McKeown, slalom canoeist Jess Fox, 800m runner Peter Bol, Patty Mills and the Boomers, decathlete Ash Moloney and his mate Cedric Dubler – but the ­shining light was a quietly spoken swimmer from Wollongong.

McKeon grew up knowing the value of hard work and the benefits of dedication to training – her parents and her brother all swam for Australia. In Tokyo she put that knowledge to good use, pursuing a massive program that had her swimming in every session.

She won gold in the 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle and 4x100m medley, breaking records in six of her seven races. She now has a total of 11 Olympic medals – five gold, two silver and four bronze – elevating her above Ian Thorpe’s nine.

She was doing it for herself, of course, having dreamt of winning Olympic gold medals, but she is also delighted she could help lift the spirits of Australians during lockdown.

“When I was in Tokyo, I could definitely feel the support from back home, and then when I got home from the Olympics, even to this day, people often tell me how good it was to watch it when they were in lockdown,” McKeon said.

Cricketer Pat Cummins. Picture: Getty Images

“It was obviously such a tough experience for so many people during that time. So I’m glad that I could be a part of something special like that and give people something exciting to watch.”

Barty also feels pride in herself combined with pleasure at being able to lift flagging spirits at home.

“Wimbledon was a dream come true for me,” she said. “Winning the final there was the most incredible feeling I’ve ever had on a tennis court. If that helped bring a smile to a few faces back home in a tough year then that makes me happy.”

Cummins, who is set to be a long-term occupant of the office some say is second only to prime minister in importance, accepts his position as a national role-model with pride.

“Australia’s my favourite place in the world and I think everyone has got their opinion but we get most things right here when you compare us to other countries,” Cummins said. “The freedoms that we have here, the lifestyle that we are able to have, there are so many big issues in other countries that we don’t even have to think about here in Australia. We are incredibly lucky in terms of family life and our sport to call Australia home. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”