Hall of Fame
The AusTriathlon Hall of Fame was established in 2009 to honour those individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the sport of triathlon in Australia. The key criteria for induction into the Hall of Fame include high-level achievements, major contributions at international and national levels, outstanding service to Australian triathlon, and bringing honour and achievement to the sport.
2023
Chris McCormack
Chris McCormack (born 4 April 1973), also known as ‘Macca’, is one of Australia’s most successful professional triathletes. A two-time IRONMAN World Champion (2007 and 2010), Australian Commonwealth Games representative (2002 Manchester – fifth place).
McCormack represented Australia as a Junior (1993) and Elite at multiple World Championships including from 1996-1999, and he was the first Australian to claim a national title in Sprint, Olympic and Ultra distance.
In 1997, he finished the year ranked number one, winning both the 1997 ITU Triathlon World Championships, and the 1997 ITU Triathlon World Cup Series – becoming the first male triathlete ever to win both titles and be ranked number 1 in the World in a single season. McCormack would be ranked ITU World number 1 for more than 26 months in total.
IN 2002 McCormack won IRONMAN Australia on debut then defended that title in 2003, winning again in 2004, 2005 and 2006 – winning five years in a row.
2022
Mirinda Carfrae
Carfrae is celebrated as a three-time IRONMAN World Champion and IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion. Beginning her career in Short Course, Carfrae represented Australia at the ITU Triathlon World Championships from 2001-2005, twice earning silver medals in 2002 & 2003 before turning her attention to long distance racing. Throughout her illustrious career, she claimed victory in IRONMAN World Championships in 2010, 2013, and 2014, and the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships in 2007. Her 2013 win included the third fastest marathon of the day including the men’s field.
2021
Craig Alexander OAM
Craig Alexander holds an unparalleled legacy as the IRONMAN World Champion in 2008, 2009, and 2011, as well as the inaugural IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion in 2006 and 2011. His historic feat of winning both the IRONMAN and IRONMAN 70.3 titles in the same year in 2011 solidifies his unmatched prowess. Awarded an Order of Australia Medal in 2015, serves as a remarkable ambassador, generously dedicating his time to the sport, media, race officials, and fellow athletes.
2020
Emma Moffatt
Emma Moffatt transformed from a surf lifesaving kiosk worker in Woolgoolga to become one of Australia’s legendary triathletes. She clinched a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, a pinnacle in her illustrious career spanning over a decade. Moffatt’s achievements include back-to-back ITU World Championships in 2009 and 2010, and a bronze medal in the 2014 Commonwealth Games Mixed Relay. Remarkably, alongside Erin Densham, she represented Australia at three Olympic Games, becoming the first triathlete to do so.
2019
Joanne King
Joanne King stands among the distinguished few who have claimed both junior and senior World Championships for Australia. King’s crowning achievement came in 1998 when she clinched the ITU World Champion title in Lausanne. In a testament to her versatile in the sport she was also a national long course winner, IRONMAN 70.3 champion and a multiple Australian IRONMAN champion in a short but highly successful career.
2018
Peter Robertson
Peter Robertson’s aggressive, all-or-nothing racing style won him three World Championships, multiple World Cups and legions of fans in Australia and around the world. He finished his career a three-time World Champion, clinching the ITU World Title in 2001, 2003, and 2005, making him the sole Australian man to achieve this feat. He also placed second at the World Championships twice. Robertson was a two-time Olympian and a Commonwealth Games medalist, winning bronze in his hometown of Melbourne in 2006.
2017
Emma Snowsill OAM
Olympian and multiple world champion Emma Snowsill has rewritten the story of triathlon in Australia. She is the first and only Australian to have won a gold medal in the Olympic arena with her historic win at the Beijing Games in 2008. She was the first Australian woman to win three world Olympic distance titles and the first to win a Youth Olympic crown. Regarded as one of the best runners of her era, Snowsill showed early promise with a 16-19 age group title at the 2000 world championships. A year later she won gold at the Sydney Youth Olympic Festival Triathlon and in 2003 won the first of her three world titles in Queenstown, New Zealand, with her defeat of the legendary Michellie Jones and US star Laura Bennett. In 2004 she earned the mantle of No.1 woman in the world with her victory in the ITU World Cup championship and in 2005 won a second world title in Gamagori, Japan. During 2005 and 2006 she won big money races such as the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon in Minneapolis before claiming the 2006 Commonwealth Games gold in Melbourne and her third world crown in Lausanne later in the year. Her greatest win came in 2008 at the Beijing Olympics where she destroyed her opposition to claim an historic gold medal. Her time of 1:58:27, one minute and seven seconds ahead of Fernandes, broke a string of Australia’s ‘’duck’’ in respect to gold medals in this sport. In 2009 Snowsill was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia and in 2010 won the 2010 Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Grand Final by one minute and 44 seconds. Snowsill battled a series of injuries and illness in the lead up to the 2012 Olympics and was a controversial omission from the Australian team. Other highlights of her career include winning the “Grand Slam” of Chicago, Los Angeles, London and New York Triathlons.
2016
John Maclean OAM
Pioneer Australian paratriathlete John MacLean experienced triathlon as an able bodied athlete. He was training for the 1988 Nepean Triathlon when an encounter with a truck dramatically altered his life path. Suffering three breaks in his back, MacLean came out of the accident a paraplegic. In 1995, MacLean was ready to challenge the notion of disability and he headed to Hawaii to finish before the 17 hour cut off. In 1996 MacLean competed in and won the newly created category of ‘Athletes with Disabilities’ at the ITU Triathlon World Championships. Again he finished Kona under the cut off but was not official, missing the bike cut off due to a puncture.
In 1997, Maclean finally became the first disabled athlete to finish Hawaii within able-bodied cut-off time, completing the race in 12 hours 21 minutes. Several weeks later he also competed at the ITU Triathlon World Championships again and retained his world title.
He as the first Australian inducted into the IRONMAN Hall of Fame in 2003 in recognition of achievement. He became the first paraplegic to swim across the English Channel in 1998. In 2000 he competed in the 1500m wheelchair race at the Sydney Olympics. His latest astounding achievement – regaining use of his legs and completing the Nepean Triathlon without a wheelchair in 2014.
2015
Nicole Hackett
Nicole Hackett took up triathlon at the age of 15 because for a new challenge after a childhood of surf lifesaving. In 1997, just out of high school, she won the World Junior Triathlon Championships in Perth and the following year became the only Australian to defend a Junior title. In her first full season of professional triathlon in 1999 she achieved two World Cup podiums, won the St George Formula 1 series and was runner-up in the ITU Aquathlon World Championships.
Nikki became known for her strong swim/bike credentials and would often race form the front, challenging faster runners to catch her. Playing to her strengths, she went on to claim another F1 series title and an Australian Olympic Distance Championship title in 2000. In the same year, she gained selection to represent Australia onto the 2000 Sydney Olympic Triathlon team, placing 9th in the event. The following year Nikki she became triple F1 champion, retained the Australian Olympic Distance title and Goodwill Games bronze medallist. In 2002 Nicky secured another national championships winning the sprint title and in the Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games triathlon she was the first Australian woman home finishing with a Bronze medal.
2014
Stephen Foster
At the age of 18, he competed in the iron-distance 1984 Triple M Triathlon. He finished third behind 1982 Ironman World Champion American Scott Tinley, and one of Australia’s top athletes, Marc Dragan.
Foster peaked just as the national circuit began to take shape. Although he suffered serious injuries in a cycling accident in November 1988, and took a full year to return to his winning form, he was named Triathlon Sports Triathlete of the Year in 1987, 1988, and 1990, won the official Australian Championships in 1987, 1988, 1990 and 1991, and also claimed the Australia long course title in 1988 and 1996.
He finished third at the unofficial world championships in Kelowna Canada in 1988, and won at the famous USTS Chicago Triathlon.
2014
Louise Mackinlay (Bonham)
Once referred to as ‘The Lady of Iron’, Louise was one of Australia’s key female triathletes of the period when the national circuit began to consolidate, and Australian triathletes began to assert their presence as a collective on the international stage.
Mackinlay’s consistency was apparent across a variety of distances. Over the years she won Nepean twice (1988, 1989), the SRI Chinmoy Long Course in Canberra five times, Devonport (1989), Wollongong (1989), Coral Coast, and the David Hawkins memorial Triathlon at Palm Beach on the Gold Coast (otherwise known as The Pines) to become the 1991 Olympic distance Australian champion. She was also national long course champion in 1989 and 1991.
By the end of 1988/1989, Louise was selected to compete in the first official Triathlon World Championships at Avignon as part of the national team. During the European trip Bonham ‘blitzed the women’s field’, and became one of the first woman known to have finished to finish an Olympic distance race course in less under than two hours.
Demonstrating her versatility, Louise followed up on her 1986 Hawaiian Ironman success with wins at IRONMAN Australia in 1987, 1988 and 1989.
2013
Brad Beven
Brad became a legend in the sport after winning four consecutive World Cup Series titles between 1992 and 1995 and three silver medals in the ITU World Championships in the 90s – amongst a host of amazing achievements at home and abroad.
The 1990 ITU World Championships in Orlando Florida was very much Australia’s day with Greg Welch taking the gold medal, Beven with silver and Stephen Foster taking the bronze in only the second ever World Championship. Brad also claimed a silver medal at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland when triathlon was included as a demonstration sport.
Brad is a four time World Cup champion, 5 x Australian Champion and 7 x Australian Grand Prix Champion.
2012
Emma Carney
Emma Carney had an extraordinary career, chalking up an amazing 12 consecutive World Cup victories between June 1995 and April 1997 in a reign that made her one of the most feared triathletes in the world. She was the world ranked number one woman for three years in succession in 1995, 1996 and 1997 and all in all achieved 19 World Cup victories.
Emma only got serious about triathlon 18 months before winning her first ITU World title in Wellington in 1994 to launch a spectacular career. Her performances through 1995 and 1997 will go down in triathlon history as one of the great individual performances in the sport.
2012
Jackie Fairweather (Nee Gallagher)
Jackie began competing in triathlon in 1992 and won the elite Australian National Series in her first season. She spent eight years as a professional triathlete. In 1996 she became the world triathlon champion, setting a championship record time of 1 hour 50 minutes 52 seconds in Cleveland, Ohio. She also won the World Duathlon Championships in 1996 to become the only person ever to win both world titles in the same year.
She won the bronze medal in the marathon in the 2002 Commonwealth Games,[1] after finishing 11th in her first ever marathon in Boston.[2] In 2005 she won the Gold Coast Marathon.
2012
Loretta Harrop
Loretta joined Michellie Jones and Nicole Hackett on the start line for triathlon’s Olympic debut in Sydney in 2000 finishing fifth.
She then went on to claim Australia’s second Olympic silver in Athens in 2004.
She had been crowned overall ITU World Cup champion in 1999 and in her Olympic year in 2004 also won silver in the World Championships in Madeira.
2009
Michellie Jones AM
Michellie Jones is widely considered as the sports of triathlons most decorates athletes, one of the top 10 female triathletes of all time.
With over 175 career victories at all distances, she dominated the sport for over 20 years. Michellie competed in the 2000 Summer Olympics winning a silver medal for Australia.
Shortly after in 2004 she became an Ironman Champion in Florida and then went on to become the first Australian woman to win an Ironman World Championships in 2006.
2009
Miles Stewart OAM
Originally a speedskater from Wollongong, Miles rose to the elite ranks of the emerging sport of triathlon in the early ’90s whilst living on Queensland’s Gold Coast.
He represented Australia at 16 ITU World Championships and went on to win a silver medal at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester. Miles competed at the first Olympic triathlon at the 2000 Summer Olympics, taking sixth place.
2009
Greg Welch OAM
Greg is acknowledged as one of the greatest triathletes due to his remarkable dominance in winning the “The Grand Slam” which includes the ITU Triathlon World Championships (1990), The Ironman World Championship (1994), the ITU Duathlon World Championships (1993) and the Long Course Triathlon World Championship (1994).
Greg became the first Australian triathlete to be inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2011.