NSW Champions of Sport - Petria Thomas OAM

Join us as we celebrate the past winners of the NSW Sports Awards spanning over 20 years of sporting excellence and achievement – as we countdown to the inaugural NSW Champions of Sport, where, for the first time, the induction of new entrants into the NSW Hall of Champions will be combined with the NSW Sports Awards in one gala ceremony. 

In the lead up to the event, we will look back to our past crowned NSW Athlete of the Year and NSW Athlete of the Year with a Disability winners as they share their great joys and triumphs as well as life post their ‘dream year’ with successes both on and off the field.

Petria Thomas OAM
Sport: Swimming
Events: Freestyle, Butterfly
NSW Athlete of the Year: 2004

Without a doubt 2004 proved to be the biggest year of Petria Thomas’ swimming career – and the year she won the NSW Athlete of the Year.  

Petria had overcome three shoulder reconstructions, an ankle reconstruction and a stomach operation in prior years, but in 2004 she qualified for the Athens Olympics with career best times at the selection trials in Sydney across her freestyle and butterfly events.

At the Games she stepped up to win three gold medals in the 100m Butterfly, 4 x 100m Freestyle relay and 4 x 100m Medley relay – with both relay teams breaking the World Record. A silver medal in the 200m Butterfly took her Olympic medal tally to eight, after collecting silver and bronze medals in Atlanta (1996) and Sydney (2000).

To cap off her Olympic journey Petria was selected to be the Australian flag bearer at the closing ceremony of the Athens Games following her incredible performances.

Alongside her Olympic medals Petria won 12 Commonwealth Games medals including nine gold. Seven of the 12 Commonwealth medals were won at the 2002 Manchester Games, which was another career highlight.  Petria also won a staggering 16 medals at various short course and long course world championships throughout her career, with four of those being gold.

Since her retirement from swimming in 2004, Petria has remained involved in swimming and is the current Performance Operations Manager in the High-Performance Unit at Swimming Australia.

As well as being a past winner of the Sport NSW Athlete of the Year, Petria Thomas is also a member of the NSW Hall of Champions. When speaking about her induction alongside the greats of NSW sport she said:

“It was a great honour to be inducted into the NSW Hall of Champions. To be included in such a prestigious group is very humbling, it means a lot to me and is an achievement I am very proud of.”

Petria has also been inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame and the Mullumbimby swimming pool, the town in which she grew up, was renamed in her honour as the Mullumbimby Petria Thomas Swimming Pool.

The cream of NSW Sports stars from both past and present will be celebrated at the NSW Champions of Sport Ceremony to be held at Rosehill Gardens on Monday 27 November 2017.

For more information on the NSW Champions of Sport Ceremony and to secure your seat visit: www.sportnsw.com.au/2017ChampionsofSport