SKIING world champion Laura Peel and basketball star Patty Mills have been named the ACT’s athletes of the Year.
Laura’s skiing prowess has seen her compete in two Winter Olympic Games and win over a dozen world cup medals. In the 2020-2021 season Peel won the second World Championship gold medal of her career in Almaty, Kazakhstan, becoming Australia’s first aerial skiing double World Champion. In 2022 she’ll be aiming to compete in her third Olympics in Beijing.
Patty Mills is known for his superstar career in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He recently competed in his fourth Olympics, leading the Boomers to their first-ever podium finish in Tokyo, and was also the first Indigenous Australian Olympics flag bearer.
The other 2021 Canberra Sport Award winners include:
- Athlete of the Year – Para sport: James Turner (athletics)
- Team of the Year: Olympic rowing men’s quadruple scull
- Outstanding Service to Sport – joint winners: Trudy Fajri (AFL), Carl Ruhen (boxing) and Sanjay Sharma (cricket)
- Rising Star: Jade Melbourne (basketball)
- Ministers Award – Inclusion: Canberra region rugby league for Canberra region wheelchair rugby league
- Ministers Award – Innovation: Little athletics ACT for online participation program
- Ministers Award – Event Excellence: Table tennis ACT for the 2020 ACT Open
- ACT Sport Hall of Fame – Full member: Jaime Fernandez (rowing) and Eddie Palubinskas (basketball)
- ACT Sport Hall of Fame – Associate member: Phil Lynch (sport journalist) and Ben Gathercole (triathlon)
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