Sydney: Olympic gold medal-winning sisters Jess and Noemie Fox have been awarded the top honor in Australian sport.
The Fox sisters, who made history in Paris as the first Australian siblings to win individual Olympic gold medals, were on Monday night honored with The Don Award at the Sport Australia Hall of Fame event for 2024.
Awarded annually since 1998, The Don – named after cricketer Don Bradman – is given to the Australian athlete or team that most inspired the nation over the previous 12 months.
Jess Fox won her second and third Olympic gold medals in the K1 and C1 slalom canoeing events in Paris, defending her Tokyo title in the latter, before being knocked in the heats of the kayak cross event by Noemie, who went on to win gold.
“We didn’t realize, we couldn’t imagine, how much of an impact Paris would have on those watching at home,” Jess, who was Australia’s flag bearer for the opening ceremony in Paris, said in her acceptance speech in Melbourne on Monday night.
“Obviously for us, it was a dream come true, the culmination of a lifetime of work – and for our family as well, it was an incredible moment,” she said.
The Dawn Award, which recognizes an individual, team or organization who show bravery or courage and have changed sport for the better, was awarded to veteran basketballer Lauren Jackson.
Jackson, 43, became the first Australian to win five medals at five separate Olympics by winning bronze with the national women’s basketball team, the Opals, in Paris.
Six athletes, including surfing world champion Mick Fanning and Olympic hurdling champion Sally Pearson, and two administrators were inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame.
Squash champion Geoff Hunt and Australia’s most successful Paralympic Winter Games athlete, 11-time medalist Michael Milton, were elevated as the 50th and 51st Legends in the Sport Australia Hall of Fame.
