Alumni front runners!

To continue celebrating our fantastic trailblazing alumni, we present a special election of alumni sport stars that have set the pace for change across a range of sports by achieving some notable ‘firsts’ in their chosen sport or profession.

Whether it be winning world championships, setting new records, or smashing the status quo, the firsts’ our incredible alumni sporting stars prove they truly are a league of their own.

Gai Waterhouse
BA ’75

Image: Bluebloodthoroughbreds.com.au

Widely known as the First Lady of Australian racing, trainer Gai Waterhouse broke down many barriers to become one of the most recognisable and most loved personalities in Australia. Throughout her career, Gai has trained more than 7,000 winners across more than two decades. Her track record includes 156 season metropolitan wins, more than 130 Group 1 wins and seven Sydney trainers’ premierships. In 2013 with her horse Fiorente, Gai became the first Australian woman to train the winner of the Melbourne Cup. She was recognised with induction as a General Member into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in October 2018, making Gai the first ever horse trainer to ever be inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame.

 

Bob Dwyer
BE (Electrical) ’62

Image: Twitter

Alumnus Bob Dwyer was the first person to coach the Wallabies to win their first Rugby World Cup in 1991. Before this, Bob coached Sydney club Randwick to four Sydney championship wins before becoming Australia's national team coach. From there he coached Australia from 1982–83, and again from 1988 until their victory in 1991. After a stint coaching overseas, Bob returned to Australia and became coach of the New South Wales Waratahs in Super Rugby (at the time known as Super 12) before resigning in 2003. In 2011, he was inducted into the International Rugby Hall of Fame.

 

Moya Dodd
MBA ’96

Image: Moya Dodd being presented her 2018 UNSW Alumni Award by Professor Chris Styles

In 2013 Business School alumna, lawyer and soccer guru Moya Dodd was one of the first women ever to be selected to the FIFA Executive Committee. Moya chaired FIFA’s Women’s Football Task Force, becoming “one of the most credible and outspoken voices for change” (VICE Sports) while leading the #womeninFIFA reform campaign. She is also the honorary President of Women in Sports Law and a former player with the Australian women’s soccer team, the Matildas (1986 – 1995). Moya has received a number of accolades for her influence in the sporting arena, even being named the seventh most powerful woman in international sport (outside the US) by Forbes.

 

Usman Khawaja
BAv ’09

Image: Facebook

Alumnus and left-handed top order batsman, Usman is the First Pakistani-born and Muslim man to play cricket for Australia when he made his debut in the 2011 Sydney Ashes Test. Batting at No.3 in place of the injured Ricky Ponting, he made 37 and 21 and showed impressive poise, giving Australia a ray of hope in a series that had brought them little but doom and gloom. A move from New South Wales to Queensland in 2012 saw him play for the Queensland team and later be named captain of Queensland. During the 2015–16 season, Usman also went on to become the first batsmen to score a century on home soil in a Day/Night Test Match, and still has the record for the second highest individual score in a Day-Night Test innings.

 

Jane Saville
BSocSc ’96

Image: Alchetron

Jane became the first Australian woman to win an Olympic medal in race walking. Having competed in the 1996 Olympics to midfield results, Jane is perhaps most well known for her tragic last minute disqualification from the women’s 20km racewalking event in the Sydney 2000 Games mere minutes before she would have won a Gold medal. Jane rebounded to win a bronze in the 2004 Athens Olympics, and has also won three gold medals at the Commonwealth Games, in the 10 kilometre walk in 1998, in the 20 kilometre walk in 2002 and 2006. She has won the Australian women's race walking championship five times. She was the Australian flagbearer at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

 

Michael Wenden AM MBE
BCom ’74

Image: Sport Australia Hall of Fame

Swimming champion Michael Wenden was the first UNSW graduate to have won an Olympic gold medal. Michael turned to swimming seriously at the age of 12 after breaking his leg trying to jump a fence, pushing him away from contact sports and into the water. In the 1968 Olympic Games he earned a haul of two individual gold medals, silver, and a bronze, while being among Australia's finest at a single Olympics, the best since the 1956 Melbourne Games.  He also he broke the 100m world record and the 200m Olympic record. Throughout his career, Michael collected a total of four Olympic medals, held six world records, held 11 Commonwealth Games records, and won 11 individual and 16 team national titles.

 

Mark Taylor AO (Tubby)
Bsurv ’88, HonDSc ’99


Image: Wikipedia (Bidgee)

Current Cricket Australia Director and commentator for the Nine Network, Mark was the first ever batsmen to score more than 1,000 test runs in a calendar year, in their debut year. Taylor made 839 Test runs on his first England tour (1989) and for most of his 104 Tests remained solid. In his role as first slip, he cradled most of his world-record 157 catches. After he inherited the captaincy in 1994-95 he earned a somewhat less sought after achievement – becoming the first player in Test history to score a pair on his captaincy debut. However, the following year he helped Australia topple West Indies in the Caribbean to become unofficial world champions. In 1998, Mark made an unbeaten batting average of 334 at Peshawar to match Don Bradman's highest score for Australia. Six months later, he retired to the commentary box at age 34.

 

Liz Weekes
BSpSc ’93

Liz was the goalkeeper for the Australian women's water polo team who won gold in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. This was the first time the sport was contested at the Olympics, with Australia beating USA 4–3 in the final game] in front of a World record attendance of 17,000 spectators. Liz was one of the main advocates in helping women's water polo win a twenty-year battle to compete in the Olympic Games. So passionate were Weekes and her teammates about the acceptance of their sport that they went as far as storming IOC meetings to gain recognition for their cause.