KATHY WATT
Australia’s greatest all-round women’s cyclist – the first Aussie female bike rider to win an Olympic gold medal (181km road race, Barcelona, 1992). Kathy also won four Commonwealth Games gold medals and 24 national titles in road, track and mountain biking. She competed at two Olympics, four Commonwealth Games, six world championships and finished second in the 1994 Giro d’Italia. Her cycling career was studded with controversy; she was single-minded and did not suffer interfering officials. She was awarded an OAM for her services to cycling, and in 2015 was inducted into the Australian Sports Hall of Fame.
DR PETER LARKINS
Australian steeplechase
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ROWING
DR PETER LARKIN
This superbly-gifted athlete won 10 Australian steeplechase titles (three junior and seven open) and represented Australia at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. He lined-up again in the green and gold colours at the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games. At his peak, he was ranked the world’s No.4 steeplechaser. Among modern-day fans, this sports medicine expert is probably best known as a boundary rider for radio station Triple M’s AFL footy coverage. He provided live assessments of players’ injuries, which led to an appointment at Channel 9. In 2012, he moved to 3AW and the Seven Network.
DAVID RAMAGE:
An awesome rower and fascinating character. When hot shot Australia finished runner-up in the coxed four at the 1962 Perth Commonwealth Games, he hurled his silver medal into the Canning River. He didn’t like losing. Six years onwards at the Mexico Olympics, Ramage and partner Paul Guest were raging favourites to win gold in the coxless pairs. They cruised through their heat and had a mortgage on the semi-final. David suddenly collapsed in the boat in the semi, a tragic victim of Mexico City’s oxygen-depleted air and the Aussies missed the final. Relegated to the B Final, the Ramage-Guest combo slaughtered their opposition. Their winning time was nearly seven seconds faster than the gold medal-winning East Germans: a travesty..
JEFF SYKES:
Although he never competed at an Olympic Games, mainly because of business pressures, the name of Geelong-born Jeff Sykes is synonymous with Australian and international rowing. A boat builder of universal renown, Sykes joined the Corio Bay Rowing Club as an 11-year-old in 1955. Over the next five decades, he received countless accolades as a competitor, designer, coach, businessman, administrator, philanthropist and – of course – boat builder. He won the Australian lightweight single sculls championship in 1962 and, at age 22, opened his own boat building business in 1966. By 1976, he employed 40 personnel. Among his numerous titles, his best result on the global stage was a silver medal for Australia in the Eights crew at the 1978 world lightweight rowing championships in Denmark. His innovative boats have been rowed by at least a dozen nations at the Olympic Games – with gold, silver and bronze success..