Lawn bowling great Karen Murphy was elated after being recently inducted into the Australian Sports Hall of Fame, but it was a day also tinged with tragedy on a personal level.
Murphy received a call from sailing legend and Sports Australia Hall of Fame president John Bertrand informing him of the coveted honour, just hours after the death of his mother Lorraine.
“Mom had battled brain cancer and I had been taking care of her for a few years and she passed away at 5:57 a.m. that day and then John called me around 11 a.m. and told me, and I burst into tears,” said. News Corporation.
“I was so honored when I heard the news; to join such a wonderful list of athletes from all sports is truly special.”
‘I feel incredibly grateful to all those who have been with me on my journey. I share this award with our entire bowling community.”
Murphy is a two-time world singles champion and 2006 Commonwealth Games gold medalist, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the sport.
He joins the likes of Olympic gold medalist Sally Pearson and surfing legend Mick Fanning as fellow Sport Australia Hall of Fame winners.
Other 2024 inductees include racing great Mark Skaife, former Kookaburras hockey captain Mark Knowles and Paralympic dual-sport champion Liesl Tesch.
Lawn bowling great Karen Murphy was elated after being recently inducted into the Australian Sports Hall of Fame, but it was a day also tinged with tragedy.
Murphy received a call from Sport Australia Hall of Fame president John Bertrand just hours after the death of his mother Lorraine (pictured left with Murphy).
Pearson is one of nine Australian women to have won an Olympic gold medal in track and field, taking gold in London in 2012 and silver in 2008 in the 100m hurdles, as well as success at the World Championships in 2011. and 2017 as two Commonwealth Games titles.
Pearson, the first Australian to be named World Athlete of the Year and a two-time winner of SAHOF’s ‘The Don’ Award, said it was ‘surreal’ to be included in such esteemed company, including the likes of hero Cathy Freeman.
“I don’t think it’s really sunk in. It’s so surreal.” “It seems like it happens to people you see on TV,” he said.
‘I still feel like I’m watching the Sydney Olympics and watching Cathy Freeman run. When Steve Hooker won gold in Beijing, I was sitting on the sidelines.
‘Even though I won silver, I was thinking, this is really cool. I’m watching this person, this athlete, doing incredible things. It’s a strange feeling that I am now one of those people.
Fanning enters as a three-time world champion as part of an illustrious surfing career led by his encounter with a shark at J-Bay in South Africa in 2015.
Despite the shocking incident, Fanning returned to the same ocean the following year and scored a famous victory to etch his name in Australian sporting folklore.
Fanning is already a member of the World Surfers Hall of Fame and the Australian Surfing Hall of Fame and said he was quite “astonished” to be informed of his promotion to the SAHOF.
Sally Pearson (pictured winning gold in the women’s 100m hurdles at the 2012 London Olympics) also received the nod from the Hall of Fame.
Surfing great Mick Fanning (pictured shortly before being attacked by a shark in South Africa in 2015) is another addition.
“Australia produces so many incredible sporting stars and to be honored as one of them, among the greats, leaves me quite dumbfounded, to be honest,” he said.
“It’s not something we look for when we play our sport, but to be recognized later in life is very special and I feel very honored to be able to share it with the people who have supported me.
“I wasn’t the most talented person, I wasn’t the most talented, I didn’t have the most money or anything like that, but I gave it my all.”
Skaife was one of the most successful drivers in Australian motorsport, winning the Bathurst 1000 six times between 1991 and 2010 with five touring car titles, including an impressive hat-trick of V8 Supercars championship crowns between 2002 and 2004.
Knowles, a four-time Olympian, was the youngest member of the Kookaburras team that ended decades of Olympic angst by winning gold in Athens in 2004.
He won bronze medals at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and London in 2012, as well as two World Cups, four Champions Trophies and four Commonwealth Games gold medals before his retirement in 2018 after more than 300 international matches.