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29 July 2004
ASC congratulates Indigenous athletes and officials in Athens
The Australian Sports Commission wishes to congratulate 11 Indigenous sports people in making the Australian Olympic team to compete in the Athens Olympic Games in August.
ASC CEO Mark Peters paid tribute to the Indigenous athletes and officials selected in the Australian team. ‘Congratulations and good luck to the Indigenous athletes who are set to do us proud at the Athens Games,’ Mr Peters said.
‘They have made significant sacrifices and continue to work hard to ensure Australia performs with distinction at the Games.’
‘Indigenous athletes have a rich and proud history of representing Australia at the Olympics—who will ever forget the contribution of Cathy Freeman four short years ago as she lit the Olympic flame in Sydney and won an heroic victory in the 400 metre final.’
‘The Sports Commission recognises the enormous contribution that Indigenous sportspeople have made to Australian Sport.’
The Indigenous athletes named to compete in Athens follow in the footsteps of Indigenous sporting greats Cathy Freeman, Nova Peris, Kyle Vander Kuyp and James Swan to name a few.
The first Indigenous athlete to represent Australia at an Olympic or Paralympic Games was Kevin Coombes–a wheelchair basketballer at the Paralympics in Rome in 1960.
The Australian Sports Commission works hard to improve opportunities for Indigenous Australians at a community level to access sport and recreation opportunities through the work of its Indigenous Sport Unit.
The Indigenous representation in the Australian team comprises boxers Anthony Little (60kg division), Jamie Pittman (75kg division), Bradley Hore (51kg division); sprinters Patrick Johnson, (4x100m relay) and Joshua Ross (100m, 4x100m relay); soccer player Jade North, men’s water polo players Dean Semmens and Nathan Thomas, softball player Stacey Porter, and beach volleyball coach Steve Tutton, and basketball official Scott Butler.
Contact: Richard Howes, Australian Sports Commission 02 6214 1456 or 0408 662 123
A list of profiles for Indigenous athletes selected in the Australian Olympic team follows:
Profiles of 2004 Indigenous Olympic Athletes
Bradley Hore, boxing, 51kg division
Bradley Hore won the 51kg (flyweight) national title in 2000 and qualified for the boxing team for the Sydney Olympics but did not compete, as he was unable to make the weight at these Games.
He gets his chance again in Athens. He was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder in 2000 and 2002.
Patrick Johnson, athletics, 4x100m relay
Patrick Johnson did not take up athletics until 1997, and just seven months later he had competed in the 200m at the 1997 IAAF World Track and Field Championships.
Two years later he reached the final of the 200m at the World University Games in Spain.
He competed at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, reaching the quarter-finals (top 32) in both the 100m and 200m, and the semi-finals of the 4x100m relay.
Patrick ran a brilliant anchor leg to grab a bronze medal for the Australian 4x100m relay team at the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games.
Patrick became the first Australian sprinter to break 10 seconds for 100m, running 9.88 seconds wind-assisted in Perth in February 2003. The following May in Japan he ran 100m in 9.93 seconds with a legal wind speed, becoming the 17th fastest man of all time over 100m. He has been an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder since 1997.
Anthony Little, boxing, 60kg division
Anthony Little narrowly missed out on selection for the Australian Olympic team in 2000 after finishing runner-up to James Swan at the national championships.
He gets his opportunity in Athens in 2004 in the 60kg division. He won the 64kg title at the Oceania Boxing Championships, qualifying for the 2003 world championships where he reached the second round.
Jade North, men’s soccer
Defender Jade North, from Sunnybank in Queensland, was selected in the Australian Joeys team for the 1999 Under-17 World Cup played in New Zealand while on an Australian Institute of Sport Soccer scholarship.
In this tournament, Australia lost 2-1 to the great Brazil in the final, the highest place Australia has finished in a world soccer competition. Jade played solidly at wide right midfield throughout the tournament.
In 2001 Jade was selected in the Australian Under-20 squad for the Oceania qualifiers for the World Youth Cup. He won NSL Championship Medals with the Olympic Sharks in 2001-02 and Perth Glory in 2003-04. Jade made four appearances for the Socceroos up until 2002, and was called into the Socceroos squad again in 2004 for matches against Turkey and for the Oceania Nations Cup and 2006 FIFA World Cup preliminary competition.
Jamie Pittman, boxing, 75kg division
Jamie Pittman has been unlucky in major competitions but gets his chance in the 75kg weight division in Athens. He suffered a cut eye in the Sydney Olympic trials and again in the 2002 Oceania Championships.
At the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games he went into the last round of his quarter-final of the 71kg division against the eventual gold medallist leading by two points. However his opponent turned it around and eventually won by four points.
Jamie was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder in 1999, 2000, and 2002.
Stacey Porter, women’s softball
Stacey Porter of Tamworth, New South Wales, will make her Olympic debut in Athens. She is living and studying in Honolulu, USA.
Only twenty-two, she has already represented Australia in the 2003 Canada Cup, in which Australia finished second, the 2003 Hobart International tri-series, where Australia was again second, and the 2004 Blacktown International Softball Challenge, won by Australia.
Joshua Ross, athletics, 100m, 4x100m relay
Joshua Ross of Newcastle in NSW, won the 100m championship at the 2003-04 Australian Track and Field Championships to qualify for Athens. He was fourth in the 200m.
When Joshua won the famous Stawell Gift professional foot race in 2003, running off a seven-metre handicap, he became only the fourth Indigenous athlete to win the event in its 122-year history.
His win came in one of the strongest international fields ever to compete at Stawell. At the 2002 Stawell Gift Easter carnival, Ross won the 70m Arthur Postle sprint.
Dean Semmens, men’s water polo
Dean Semmens is one of the most promising Australian water polo players to emerge in recent years. He won Australian senior selection in 1997 while still a junior.
Dean was appointed captain of the Australian team to the 1999 Junior World Cup, at which Australia finished second. At junior international level he won a gold medal at the 1997 Slovakian Junior Cup and was named player of the tournament at the 1999 Samartzidis Cup in Greece.
He represented Australia in the 10th FINA World Championships in 2003, and in the 2003 and 2004 World Water Polo League. Dean held an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship from 1997 to 2000.
Nathan Thomas, men’s water polo, captain
Nathan Thomas was a Sydney 2000 Olympian and is the current Australian men’s water polo captain, having been appointed national captain for the 2001 world championships. He also led the team to the 10th FINA World Championships in 2003. He was a member of the Australian team that finished fourth at the 1998 FINA World Championships.
Nathan was in the Australian team that finished third in the 1993 FINA World Cup, beating the USA in the bronze medal playoff to win Australia’s first medal in major international water polo competition. Nathan won a gold medal at the 1995 Hungarian Cup and bronze medals at the 1995 and 1997 Universiades (World Student Games).
Nathan was an AIS Water Polo scholarship holder from 1991 to 2001.
Steve Tutton, beach volleyball coach
Athens will be Steve Tutton’s third Olympics as an official. He was manager of the Australian beach volleyball team at Atlanta in 1996, beach volleyball section manager and coach at Sydney 2000, and in 2004 he is coaching the beach volleyball team.
Steve played in the Australian senior volleyball team from 1982 to 1988, and was captain for all this period except 1987. He and his brothers, Reg and Mark, all represented Australia in the 1983 Asian Volleyball Championships. Steve is a member of the Aboriginal and Islander Sports Hall of Fame.
Scott Butler, basketball umpire
Queensland referee, Scott Butler, has been selected by FIBA, the international governing body for basketball, to represent Australia at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
Scott referees in Australia's premier basketball league, the National Basketball League (NBL). Although only in his early thirties, Scott has been refereeing competitive basketball for more than 15 years, 12 in the NBL. He is the first Indigenous person to have refereed in the NBL.
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