60 and rising - Indigenous Olympians - Indigenous Business News

Australia has been represented by 60 Indigenous Australian Olympians known to the AOC, 59 Indigenous athletes at the Summer Olympic Games and by one Indigenous athlete at the Winter Olympic Games.

Basketballer Michael Ah Matt and boxers Adrian Blair and Francis Roberts became the first Indigenous Australians to call themselves Olympians when they competed at the 1964 Tokyo Games.

In 1992 at Barcelona, Samantha Riley became the first female Indigenous Olympian and at these Games she became Australia’s first Indigenous competitor to win an Olympic medal, when she won bronze in the 100m breaststroke.

Nova Peris-Kneebone was the first gold medallist as part of the women’s hockey team in Atlanta in 1996.

Harley Windsor became Australia’s first Indigenous Winter Olympian when the then-20-year-old from Rooty Hill in Sydney’s West competed in Pairs Figure Skating at PyeongChang 2018, alongside his Russian-born parter Katia Alexandrovskaya, where the duo finished 18th on debut.

Cathy Freeman is the most successful Indigenous athlete with gold at Sydney 2000 and silver at Atlanta 1996 in the 400m.

Of the 60 Indigenous athletes known to represent Australia at the Olympic Games, 43 are men and 17 are women. But between them the women have won 11 out of Australia’s 15 Indigenous medals.