Widely regarded as one of the best basketballers in the world, four-time Olympian Lauren Jackson was inducted for her contribution to the sport of basketball.

Throughout her Olympic career, she collected three silver and one bronze medal with the Aussie Opals and carried the Australian flag at the London 2012 Opening Ceremony.

She led Australia to World Championship gold in 2006 after winning bronze in 2002 and 1998, and won two championships, three MVP's and is a seven-time WNBA All-Star.

In Australia, she is a five-time WNBL champion, four-time MVP and five-time All-Star.

In 2011 the Albury Sport stadium was renamed “The Lauren Jackson Sports Centre.”

Lauren was also awarded the Officer of the Order of Australia in 2015 for distinguished services to basketball as an athlete at national and international level, as a mentor for women in sport, and as a supporter of a range of cultural and social welfare groups.

In 2018 she won the International Olympic Committee’s Women in Sport award for Oceania and was inducted into the Australian Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019.

She will be inducted into America’s Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2021 as an International Player.

Lauren authored her first biography in 2018 called “Lauren Jackson My Story” and in 2018 was appointed as Head of Women’s Basketball by Basketball Australia.

Dual Olympian and Olympic Champion Matthew Mitcham, rewrote the history books when in an astonishing last-gasp performance under extreme pressure, he became the first Australian male diver in 84 years to win an Olympic gold medal at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, becoming just the second-ever Australian do so.

Mitcham’s gold medal in Beijing was Australia’s first at the Olympics by a male since Paris 1924 when Dick Eve won the plain platform event which involved no twists and turns, a very different challenge in terms of difficulty. The feat was even more remarkable given his brief hiatus prior to the Games.

Mitcham is also Commonwealth Games gold medallist and six-time silver medallist, across both the platform and springboard disciplines and was awarded the Sport Australia Hall of Fame’s coveted The Don Award in 2008 for his gold medal dive in Beijing and the following year, in 2009, he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for service to sport as a gold medallist at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Matthew will also be inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame as a diver in the Class of 2020.

Bridgette Gusterson had an outstanding water polo career which featured the undoubted highlight of captaining Australia to the first-ever Women’s Water Polo gold medal at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

In what was a memorable moment for Bridgette, she scored the winning goal from a clever flick over the Russian goalkeeper’s shoulder to proceed to the gold medal match.

She debuted for Australia in 1992, subsequently amassing 212 international matches and scoring more than 400 goals.

She played in four World Cups and two world championships campaigns before the Sydney Games before retiring after Sydney 2000 and continuing to be involved as a coach.

Bridgette was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2001 for services to sport as a gold medallist at Sydney 2000.

She was inducted into the Water Polo Australia Hall of Fame in 2010 and the International Swimming Hall of Fame as a Water Polo Player in 2017. 

Four-time Olympian Cadel Evans cemented his place as one of the all-time greats of Australian road cycling following his historic 2011 Tour de France win.

In doing so, Evans became the first Australian to conquer one of the world’s biggest races after two previous second-place finishes, among his many appearances in the Tour.

His success wasn’t limited to the Tour de France but across all three Grand Tours, where he won stages, wore the leader’s jersey and finished the tour on the podium.

He became one of the few cyclists to finish on the podium at all three Grand Tours and to win a World Championship, winning the 2009 UCI Road World Championship.

His many accolades include Sport Australia Hall of Fame’s coveted The Don award inspiring the nation with his Tour de France win in 2011, he has also been named the Australian cyclist of the year  four times, male road cyclist of the year six times, Australian male mountain bike cyclist of the year three times and Victorian male athlete of the year four times.

Evans has also been widely applauded for work with charities, minority groups and the community and was made a Member of the Order of Australia on June 10, 2013 for significant service to cycling, and to the community.

You can find the full list of award winners HERE