Australia Day honours: Athletes lauded for golden achievements

Four gold medallists at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games have been made Members of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day honours list.

Australian swimmer Emma McKeon. Picture: Getty Images

Four gold medallists at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games have been made Members of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day honours list.

Leading the list is 31-year-old Paralympic tennis great Dylan ­Alcott, who is in the middle of his quest for an eighth consecutive Australian Open wheelchair quad singles title.

For Alcott, 2021 was a standout year as he became the only man to complete the golden slam in quad singles, winning all four majors and gold at the Paralympics.

Alcott was joined in receiving an OAM by Ariarne Titmus, Jessica Fox and Emma McKeon.

Titmus’s domination in the pool made her one of the breakout stars at the Tokyo Olympics.

Her feats will live long in the memory with gold medals in the 400m and 200m freestyle.

Another to taste Olympic success in 2021 and recognition in the Australia Day honours was gold medallist and world champion Fox, who took out the women’s canoe event and a bronze in the women’s kayak at the Tokyo summer Games followed by a gold medal in extreme slalom at the world championships in Slovakia.

However, few individual achievements of 2021 can surpass those of McKeon, who not only joined swimming legend Ian Thorpe in the record books with the most number of Olympic gold medals won over the course of an Australian athlete’s career, but also won a total of 14 medals, including 10 gold, at the 2021 FINA Swimming World Cup. Her total career haul of 11 Olympic medals made her Australia’s most decorated Olympian ever.