Craig Alexander
 Craig Alexander, 38, proved that age is no barrier in the Hawaii Ironman world championship in October when he became the third person to win the title three times. He also broke the 15-year-old course record for the 3.8km swim, 180km bike and 42.2km run event on the lava fields near Kona. Alexander, whose previous wins were in 2008 and 2009, was also the oldest ever champion after winning in a time of eight hours three minutes and 56 seconds - bettering the eight hours four minutes and eight seconds of Belgian Luv Van Lierde in 1996.
Black Caviar
 Black Caviar turned races into exhibitions and racing into the front page news in 2011. She was so dominant that she stifled betting and scared off the opposition but the public loved her. The magic of Black Caviar was she just kept winning by big margins. The Lightning Stakes, Newmarket Handicap, William Reid Stakes were her conquests during the autumn carnival in Melbourne before trainer Peter Moody took the show on the road.
Cadel Evans
 Cadel Evans, 34, produced an extraordinary individual sporting feat by an Australian when he won the Tour de France in July. His victory in one of the world's toughest events was the first by an Australian and followed his second placings in 2007 and 2008, fourth in 2006 and eighth on debut in 2005. He was also the oldest winner in 88 years. His BMC team took second place in the team time trial and then he won stage four in a photo finish over triple tour champion Spaniard Alberto Contador.
James Magnussen
 Before this year it was really only swimming devotees, family, friends, teammates and rivals who knew anything about James Magnussen. Most Australians would have barely recognised the name, and that's not surprising. But now all of the nation knows him, he has a nickname - The Missile - the swimming world is aghast with what he is capable of doing, and the 20-year-old from Port Macquarie is poised to be one of the headline acts heading into the London Olympics next year.
Anna Meares
 Anna Meares returned to the top of women's cycling this year with a record-equalling three titles at the world track cycling championships in March. The 28-year-old led Australia's domination of the world titles in the Netherlands by winning the women's sprint and keirin events as well as another gold medal in the team sprint with Aussie teammate Kaarle McCulloch.
Sally Pearson
 Had she not clipped the sixth hurdle of her final race, Sally Pearson might have recorded a perfect year in 2011. Going into that last outing in Belgium, the Queenslander was undefeated in 100-metre hurdles races during this year's IAAF Diamond League - a international championship run worldwide. After winning two races in Switzerland, two in England and another in Monaco, the stumble in Belgium cost Pearson not only a flawless season, but also the championships' $40,000 prize money.
Casey Stoner
 SECURING the MotoGP world championship on his home track was the ideal way for Casey Stoner to complete a stunning year - and it wasn't a bad birthday present either. Stoner celebrated his 26th birthday by winning the Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island on October 16, helping him clinch his second MotoGP title (the other was in 2007), with two races to spare.
Samantha Stosur
 Samantha Stosur's triumph at this year's US Open made her the first Australian woman to win a grand slam trophy in 31 years. The unassuming Queenslander upstaged the biggest name in women's tennis and American flag bearer Serena Williams to clinch the title - the first women's grand slam trophy won by an Australian since Evonne Goolagong Cawley at Wimbledon in 1980.
|
Australian Diamonds
 This was the year Australia took back the mantle as the No.1 netball team in the world. The road to the top began in July at the World Netball Championships in Singapore where the Diamonds advanced through the tournament undefeated to claim back-to-back world titles, following their victory in New Zealand four years ago.
Brisbane Roar
 From second last one season to first place the following season, and just one defeat along the way. Brisbane's incredible turnaround and subsequent record-breaking charge through the 2010-11 season - which culminated in a memorable come-from-behind win before 50,000 fans in the grand final at Suncorp Stadium - has made them the football story of the year. And as the unbeaten run continued into the new season, more and more experts began hailing them as the greatest club side in Australian history. It's not just about results, either.
Geelong Football Club
 Written off at the start of the year as too old and too slow, Geelong proved wrong the doubters who followed them all the way to this year's AFL grand final. Despite powering through the home-and-away season and finals series, many still expected the Cats to fall to minor premier Collingwood when it counted most.
Manly Sea Eagles
 At the start of 2011, it was considered optimistic to expect Manly to reach the finals, let alone a grand one. Yet the Sea Eagles did just that, and won, defeating the Warriors in the decider. Led by one of the best coaches in the business in Des Hasler, the Sea Eagles proved once again that a champion team always beats a team of champions. No one player was bigger than this team. Admittedly, it was littered with talent, but much of it was untapped and unheralded at the beginning of the season.
Holden Racing Team (Nick Percat and Garth Tander)
 Even Ford fans could not help but praise the effort of the two drivers who steered arch-rivals Holden to one of the most heart-stopping finishes in Bathurst's 49-year history. After nearly 6 1/2 hours of driving covering 1000 kilometres of track, it came down to a blink-of-an-eye finish for the Holden team of Nick Percat and Garth Tander to claim Australia's greatest motor race on October 9. Tander staved off a late challenge from defending champion Craig Lowndes to win by just .27 of a second and claim his third Bathurst 1000 crown.
Queensland Reds
 From cellar-dwellers to the very top shelf, the Reds did more than just make long-suffering Queenslanders' dreams come true. They led the resurgence of Super Rugby in Australia, luring more than half a million people to tune in on pay television for the chance to watch a team that made attacking rugby their own claim the top honour. It was the biggest audience in the 15-year history of pay television in the country at the time.
|
Des Hasler
 Des Hasler can be easy to poke fun at. His hair could have come out of a time capsule and his public utterances should sometimes be placed back in one. But credit to him; when it comes to coaching, Hasler is ahead of his time. Always at the cutting edge of technology, whether it comes to game-day analysis or recovery, Hasler is able to get the best out of his players physically and mentally.
Ewen McKenzie
 ''Link'', as he is affectionately known, took Australian rugby's little orphan Annies from struggle street to Park Avenue in two seasons. Let's say that again. From wooden spooners in 2007, second-last in 2009, to Super Rugby title holders in 2011. Along the way he fostered superstars (Quade Cooper, Will Genia, Digby Ioane) and an Australian captain.
Peter Moody
 The trainer of undefeated mare Black Caviar has won eight Group One races with his champion sprinter so far this year and also clinched the Melbourne trainers' premiership with the second-most wins ever. Moody got his five-year-old winning machine primed for an assault on the $1 million Newmarket Handicap in March and TJ Smith Stakes in April, and Black Caviar saluted both times. The eight wins in 2011 has taken the mare's career record to a remarkable 16-0 and total prizemoney to more than $4 million.
Norma Plummer
 Coaching icon Norma Plummer deserved a fitting end to her international career and the Australian Diamonds made sure she got it. Plummer capped off her eight years in Australian netball's top job by guiding the Diamonds to a stunning triumph at this year's world championships in Singapore.
Ange Postecoglou
 A couple of years ago, Postecoglou was effectively on the coaching scrapheap. Turfed out of the national staff - where he coached the Australian youth teams - and unable to find work in the A-League, he was working as a television pundit and coaching part-time in the Victorian Premier League. Even his hometown club, Melbourne Victory, didn't want him. Suddenly an opening appeared at Brisbane with the sacking of Frank Farina, and the rest is history. Postecoglou took the heat as he put a broom through the dressing room, changing the culture along the way.
Chris Scott
 Not since Alan Joyce steered Hawthorn to the Cup in 1988 has an AFL coach won a premiership in his first year. That was until Chris Scott came to Geelong in 2011. After winning two premierships as a player with the great Brisbane Lions teams of the early-2000s, Scott took less than 12 months to help the Cats etch their own name in the record books as one of the greatest teams of all. Scott spent just three years as an assistant at Fremantle and famously missed out on Port Adelaide's senior coaching job before arriving at Geelong this year, where he promptly led the ageing Cats to their third premiership in five years.
|
Mustafa Amini
 It's rare that a senior side pins all its hopes on an 18-year-old, but Mustafa Amini is a shining light to struggling A-league club Central Coast. Mariners coach Graham Arnold was crossing his fingers Amini would make a return to his side last week. The young Socceroo hadn't played for the Mariners this season after suffering a bout of osteo pubis, an inflammation of the pelvic region.
Patrick Cummins
 An 18-year-old who can, like few others, bowl at 150kmh, Cummins' rise has been meteoric to say the least. The Penrith product burst onto the interstate scene in 2010-11, leading the wickets tally in the domestic Big Bash Twenty20 competition and proving himself no slouch in the game's traditional format either. Notably, he bowled an astounding 48 overs in the first innings of the Sheffield Shield final. A Cricket Australia contract followed in June as Cummins became the youngest player to be signed to such a deal since the inception of the national contract system.
Caitlin Foord
 WHEN A 16-year old schoolgirl from Illawarra Sports High was named in the Matildas' women's World Cup squad, most football fans were asking: "Caitlin who?" Standing just 165 centimetres tall and looking like she could be knocked over in a stiff breeze, Foord was certainly wasn't picked for her physicality or experience - at the time, she boasted just 12 W-League matches. Her skill, however, was another matter.
Jessica Fox
 After a breakthrough year in 2010, 17-year-old Australian slalom canoer Jessica Fox continued to impress on the world stage this year. Coming off two individual gold medals at the Junior World Championships and gold at the inaugural Youth Olympic Festival in Singapore last year, the French-born canoer enjoyed more success as she ventured into the senior ranks. In September, Fox, alongside Australian team-mates Ros Lawrence and Leanne Guinea, claimed gold in the C1 teams event at the Canoe and Kayak Slalom World Championships in Slovakia. The trio totalled 179.44 seconds to finish ahead of China and Germany, who settled for silver and bronze medals respectively.
Matt Graham
 MOGUL skier Matt Graham is being modest when he says he is yet to enjoy the proudest moment of his life. In August the 17-year-old scored an upset win over Olympic gold medalist and world champion, Alexandre Bilodeau, in the James Boag's ABOM dual moguls competition at Mount Buller in Victoria.
|
Kelly Cartwright
 WHEN people say the ''sky's the limit'', few literally go to great heights to test the adage. But Kelly Cartwright has done just that — and she has found she has plenty of fuel left in tank to realise more of her dreams. Cartwright, 22, an above-knee amputee, from the Geelong suburb of Belmont, successfully reached the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro. The paralympic sprinter completed the mighty trek in 2009 with television presenter David Koch and shadow treasurer Joe Hockey.
Blake Cochrane
 While still in his teenage years, Queenslander Blake Cochrane got a teasing taste of what it might be like at the summit of his sport when he won silver in the 100m breaststroke at the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing, and the taste has made him work even harder to take the top step of the medal dais in London next year. He was one of the success stories of the Para Pan Pacific Championships in Canada, winning five gold medals with victories in the 100m breaststroke, the 50m freestyle, the 100m freestyle, the 200m individual medley, and as a member of the 4 x 100m freestyle relay team.
Ellie Cole
 Victorian 19-year-old Ellie Cole has a simple, yet poignant quote she abides by, in both sport and life: "It's better to get a sore neck from aiming too high than a hunch back from aiming too low." There was no hunching for Cole this year as she has enjoyed a spectacular 2011 in the pool. Cole, coached by Graeme Carroll at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, competed at the Para Pan Pacific Championships, in Edmonton, Canada during the year and was one of the stars of the event, returning home with six gold medals courtesy of S9 victories in the 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle, 400m freestyle, 100m butterfly, 100m backstroke and 200m medley.
Kurt Fearnley
 THE first thing to say about Kurt Fearnley is that he is a true sporting superstar. That he happens to have been confined to a wheelchair since birth is now almost a footnote to an extraordinary, life-long tale of achievement. In 2011, his already extensive trophy cabinet continued to expand, most notably with his retention of the marathon at the IPC Athletics World Championships in Christchurch. A six-time world champion with marathon victories on five continents, Fearnley currently boasts an astonishing career 31 marathon victories.
Evan O'Hanlon
 THREE gold medals from the Beijing Paralympics is impressive, but the best is yet to come for Evan O'Hanlon. The 23-year-old Sydneysider has already surpassed fellow Australian and former world record-holder Tim Sullivan as the fastest male cerebral palsy athlete in the world.
Sue Powell
 Sue Powell knows that age is no barrier. After suffering a spinal injury in 2007, which left her with permanent nerve damage, Powell took up competitive cycling. She was 39. Powell, now 44, is unsure what her speciality is, but if recent results are anything to go by, she has found a niche in the 500 metres on the track. It in that event at the NSW Masters in 2009 that she scored her first track gold medal.
|
|
