Sally Pearson and Mick Fanning among new inductees to Sport Australia Hall of Fame

An Olympic champion and a surfing legend are among the new inductees to the most elite group of Australian sportspeople in history.

Olympic gold medallist Sally Pearson and surfing legend Mick Fanning have joined the absolute elite of Australian sport after confirmation of their elevation to the Sport Australia Hall of Fame.

Motorsport great Mark Skaife, former Kookaburras’ captain Mark Knowles, lawn bowls trailblazer Karen Murphy and dual-sport Paralympics champion Liesl Tesch are the other 2024 inductees joining a lengthy list reserved for only the greatest Australian sports people in history.

Pearson is one of only nine Australian women ever to win an Olympic track and field gold medal, netting gold in London in 2012 and silver in 2008 in the 100m hurdles as well as World Championship success in 2011 and 2017 as two Commonwealth Games titles.

The first Australian to be named World Athlete of the Year, and already twice a winner of the SAHOF’s “The Don” Award, Pearson said it was “surreal” to be included in such esteemed company, including the likes of Cathy Freeman, a childhood hero.

“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,” she said.

“I still feel like I’m watching the Sydney Olympics and watching Cathy Freeman run. When Steve Hooker won gold in Beijing I was sitting on the sidelines.

Sally Pearson celebrates after winning the gold medal in the Women’s 100m Hurdles at the London Olympics. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

“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.”

Fanning enters as a three-time world champion as part of an illustrious surfing career headlined by his encounter with a shark at J-Bay in South Africa in 2015.

Despite the shock incident, Fanning returned to the same waters the very next year and secured a famous victory to etch his name in Australian sporting folklore.

Fanning is already a member of the World Surfers’ Hall of Fame and Australian Surfing Hall of Fame and said he was pretty “flabbergasted” to be told of his elevation in to the SAHOF.

“Australia produces so many incredible sporting stars and to be honoured as one of those, among the greats, I’m pretty flabbergasted, to be honest,” he said.

“It’s not something that we ever look for when we’re doing our sport, but to be acknowledged later in life is very special and I’m very honoured to be able to share it with people who have supported me.

“I wasn’t the most talented person, I wasn’t the most gifted, I didn’t have the most money or anything like that, but I just gave it my all.’’

Mick Fanning shortly before being attacked by a shark during the Final of the JBay surf Open in Jeffreys Bay. AFP PHOTO / WORLD SURF LEAGUE / HO /

Skaife was one of Australian motorsport’s most successful drivers, winning Bathurst six times from 1991-2010 with five touring car titles, including a stunning hat-trick of V8 Supercars championship crowns from 2002-04.

Four-time Olympian Knowles was the was the youngest member of the Kookaburras team that ended decades of Olympic heartache by winning gold in Athens in 2004. He won Olympics bronze medals in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012, along with two World Cups, four Champions Trophies and four Commonwealth Games gold medals before his retirement in 2018 after more than 300 international caps.

Originally published as Sally Pearson and Mick Fanning among new inductees to Sport Australia Hall of Fame