Leo
06-08-2003, 11:04 AM
Sports stars recognised
09jun03
HE has achieved every cricketing feat imaginable but Australian Test captain Steve Waugh today topped his impressive innings with a Queen's Birthday honour.
The humble sportsman, who describes himself as an average guy with "a God-given talent" to play cricket, was embarrassed by his Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) honour.
"It's really strange to be recognised like this," he said. "I'm just an average guy who plays cricket. I really don't think I do any more than anyone else in the community."
As always, sport featured strongly in this year's honours list, with retired swimmer Hayley Lewis complementing a silver Olympic medal with an Order of Australia Medal (AOM) for her services to swimming and the community.
Away from the pitch and pool, a former deputy prime minister and two former state premiers dominated the top honours.
Nine Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) soldiers also made the list for their role in the war on terror in Afghanistan. They received honours ranging from the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) to commendations for distinguished service.
Traditionally, many of the honours mark activities in fields other than a chosen profession - particularly in community or social work.
While Waugh is recognised as one of the nation's sporting greats, it was his contribution to a rehabilitation centre in India for girls whose parents suffer from leprosy which helped earn him his honour.
Noted for steely determination at the crease, Waugh's softer side was evident in 1999 when he used his God-like status on the sub-continent to raise enough money to build the refuge at the Udayan Institution at Kolkata (Calcutta).
Happy to receive his gong, Waugh was nevertheless at his modest best yesterday, playing down his humanitarian role.
"I've obviously done some work there, but there are people who do a lot more than I do, that's why it's a little bit embarrassing," he said.
"I'm obviously talented at cricket, it's one of those God-given gifts ... (but) sportsmen are sometimes put up on a pedestal. People see them as superhuman but we are the same as everyone else. The difference is we are good at sport."
Despite his modesty, Waugh is proud of the Udayan project's success.
"It is going really well," he said.
"There are 50-odd girls in the rehabilitation centre and it is going to give them opportunities to learn skills and earn money and take their family away from that environment."
Waugh plans to remain a patron of the centre well after his retirement from cricket and is now raising funds for a dormitory to be built for a further 200 girls.
As for his future in the game, Waugh is not ready to hang up his bat and intends to play in the upcoming Tests against Bangladesh.
"I'm pretty keen for it," he said.
"At this stage it's all pretty positive and I'm preparing as if I'm going to keep playing.
"I've had that (talk of retirement) for the past 18 months but I'm not retiring at this stage."
When the time does arrive, Waugh plans to play more golf and has not ruled out a career behind the microphone. "I'd like to give it a go at some stage," he said of commentating.
Lewis, seven months pregnant with her second son, prophesised as an eight-year-old about receiving a medal from the Queen.
After watching the monarch present Tracey Wickham with the 400m freestyle gold medal at the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games, Lewis turned to her sister Jo and told her she would someday receive the same.
At the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, Lewis won five gold medals, including the 400m freestyle.
"I must have been so naive but I just thought: 'The Queen gives the 400m freestyle women the medal' so, when Prince Edward walked out, I was so devastated," she said.
Lewis got to meet the Queen the next day at a civic reception.
More than a decade on, the mother of five-year-old Jacob has been retired from swimming for two years and is busy running a swimming school, doing charity work and looking forward to a new addition to her family.
Lewis said she was surprised about being awarded an OAM so long after her swimming career had ended.
"It's nice to be recognised again and know that I'm not forgotten," she said at home in Brisbane's east.
Lewis, an honorary ambassador to a number of charity organisations including the Starlight Foundation and the Australasian Spinal Research Foundation, said she was more proud of her community work than her swimming career.
"If I can just make someone happy and help raise money that means a lot," she said.
"The public do hope that their sports people portray an image of helping out the community and helping sick children and doing that type of thing.
"I think it's part of our duty being out there and being a familiar face and keeping the whole image of being a sportsperson respectable."
The highest echelon of Queen's Birthday Honours is to become a Companion (AC) in the Order of Australia general division. This year eight Australians - including two women - achieved that peak.
Doug Anthony, a former National Party leader and two-time deputy prime minister, was honoured for services to Parliament as well as for forging bilateral trade agreements.
He was joined by Western Australia Premier Richard Court and Tasmania Premier Michael Field.
The only women acknowledged were Qantas chairwoman Margaret Jackson and Melbourne philanthropist Lady Primrose Potter.
The elite group of eight also included corporate leader Sir Roderick Carnegie, engineer John Laurie and AIDS researcher Professor Emeritus Jacques Miller.
England soccer star David Beckham is expected to be awarded the OBE in Britain's Queen's Birthday Honours list when it is announced there on June 14.
More than 17,500 Australians from a wide range of fields have been recognised with the Order of Australia since its inception in 1975
09jun03
HE has achieved every cricketing feat imaginable but Australian Test captain Steve Waugh today topped his impressive innings with a Queen's Birthday honour.
The humble sportsman, who describes himself as an average guy with "a God-given talent" to play cricket, was embarrassed by his Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) honour.
"It's really strange to be recognised like this," he said. "I'm just an average guy who plays cricket. I really don't think I do any more than anyone else in the community."
As always, sport featured strongly in this year's honours list, with retired swimmer Hayley Lewis complementing a silver Olympic medal with an Order of Australia Medal (AOM) for her services to swimming and the community.
Away from the pitch and pool, a former deputy prime minister and two former state premiers dominated the top honours.
Nine Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) soldiers also made the list for their role in the war on terror in Afghanistan. They received honours ranging from the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) to commendations for distinguished service.
Traditionally, many of the honours mark activities in fields other than a chosen profession - particularly in community or social work.
While Waugh is recognised as one of the nation's sporting greats, it was his contribution to a rehabilitation centre in India for girls whose parents suffer from leprosy which helped earn him his honour.
Noted for steely determination at the crease, Waugh's softer side was evident in 1999 when he used his God-like status on the sub-continent to raise enough money to build the refuge at the Udayan Institution at Kolkata (Calcutta).
Happy to receive his gong, Waugh was nevertheless at his modest best yesterday, playing down his humanitarian role.
"I've obviously done some work there, but there are people who do a lot more than I do, that's why it's a little bit embarrassing," he said.
"I'm obviously talented at cricket, it's one of those God-given gifts ... (but) sportsmen are sometimes put up on a pedestal. People see them as superhuman but we are the same as everyone else. The difference is we are good at sport."
Despite his modesty, Waugh is proud of the Udayan project's success.
"It is going really well," he said.
"There are 50-odd girls in the rehabilitation centre and it is going to give them opportunities to learn skills and earn money and take their family away from that environment."
Waugh plans to remain a patron of the centre well after his retirement from cricket and is now raising funds for a dormitory to be built for a further 200 girls.
As for his future in the game, Waugh is not ready to hang up his bat and intends to play in the upcoming Tests against Bangladesh.
"I'm pretty keen for it," he said.
"At this stage it's all pretty positive and I'm preparing as if I'm going to keep playing.
"I've had that (talk of retirement) for the past 18 months but I'm not retiring at this stage."
When the time does arrive, Waugh plans to play more golf and has not ruled out a career behind the microphone. "I'd like to give it a go at some stage," he said of commentating.
Lewis, seven months pregnant with her second son, prophesised as an eight-year-old about receiving a medal from the Queen.
After watching the monarch present Tracey Wickham with the 400m freestyle gold medal at the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games, Lewis turned to her sister Jo and told her she would someday receive the same.
At the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, Lewis won five gold medals, including the 400m freestyle.
"I must have been so naive but I just thought: 'The Queen gives the 400m freestyle women the medal' so, when Prince Edward walked out, I was so devastated," she said.
Lewis got to meet the Queen the next day at a civic reception.
More than a decade on, the mother of five-year-old Jacob has been retired from swimming for two years and is busy running a swimming school, doing charity work and looking forward to a new addition to her family.
Lewis said she was surprised about being awarded an OAM so long after her swimming career had ended.
"It's nice to be recognised again and know that I'm not forgotten," she said at home in Brisbane's east.
Lewis, an honorary ambassador to a number of charity organisations including the Starlight Foundation and the Australasian Spinal Research Foundation, said she was more proud of her community work than her swimming career.
"If I can just make someone happy and help raise money that means a lot," she said.
"The public do hope that their sports people portray an image of helping out the community and helping sick children and doing that type of thing.
"I think it's part of our duty being out there and being a familiar face and keeping the whole image of being a sportsperson respectable."
The highest echelon of Queen's Birthday Honours is to become a Companion (AC) in the Order of Australia general division. This year eight Australians - including two women - achieved that peak.
Doug Anthony, a former National Party leader and two-time deputy prime minister, was honoured for services to Parliament as well as for forging bilateral trade agreements.
He was joined by Western Australia Premier Richard Court and Tasmania Premier Michael Field.
The only women acknowledged were Qantas chairwoman Margaret Jackson and Melbourne philanthropist Lady Primrose Potter.
The elite group of eight also included corporate leader Sir Roderick Carnegie, engineer John Laurie and AIDS researcher Professor Emeritus Jacques Miller.
England soccer star David Beckham is expected to be awarded the OBE in Britain's Queen's Birthday Honours list when it is announced there on June 14.
More than 17,500 Australians from a wide range of fields have been recognised with the Order of Australia since its inception in 1975