Nova Peris (Murran and Bunitj)

Event

• Sprinter

Achievements

• 1998 Commonwealth Games - Gold, 200m (22.77 seconds)

• 1999 World Championships

• 2000 Olympian - 4 x 400m Relay

Biography

On the track, few indigenous athletes have had such a profound effect on the world sporting stage as Nova Peris. Nova entered her athletics career having already won Olympic gold with the Hockeyroos in Atlanta in 1996. She also became the first mother to be a gold medallist for Australia since Shirley Strickland in 1956. The Northern Territorian, born in Darwin in 1971, was an outstanding talent as a hockey player, with her pace, agility and attacking skills making her a distinguished player on the international stage.

A talented sprinter, Peris first worked her way onto the international scene as a member of the Australian 4x100m team at the 1997 world championships. A year later, she was crowned Commonwealth champion in the 200m and was also a part of the 4x100m relay team that won gold. Furthering her distance a couple of years later, Nova was selected for the Sydney Olympics team in the 400m and 4x400m relay team, which placed fifth/

On the 8th of June 2000, Nova was the first Australian to run with the Sydney 2000 torch on home soil. After being passed through the hands of Aboriginal elders, she ran a stretch around Uluru with her 10-year-old daughter Jessica before passing to Ernie Dingo.

Her twin achievements, being our first indigenous Olympic champion and achieving in two different sports at the Olympic level, marks her as one of our finest athletes. In 2014, Nova was still ranked in the Australian All-Time top 10 for the 100m, 200m and 400m. She was a semi-finalist in the 400m at the Sydney Olympics and her 51.28s quarter-final run was a Personal Best.

Nova’s cousin Brooke (born 1993) was a member of the gold medal-winning Hockeyroos at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

On 7 September 2013, Nova Peris became Australia’s first indigenous woman elected to federal parliament.