“Change sometimes has to be forced,we can’t rely on it to organically happen because we know that organic change just takes too long. This kind of equity needs to be forced,changed and challenged.”
King believes about $250,000 would fund a bronze statue and she’d like to see a netball player and coach immortalised at John Cain Arena because the “Olympic Park precinct is where the big sport really happens and that’s where we need to be” drawing inspiration from the Ron Clarke/John Landy monument across the road at Olympic Park which symbolises sportsmanship.
“I don’t want to disrespect the efforts of the well-deserving men who have been immortalised and those who are coming on likeBilly Slater and Cameron Smith[who’s statues are being built at Olympic Park],they are beautiful,worthy statues of amazing athletes but come on,this is just maddening,” she says of the 29-3 imbalance.
Victorian Michelle Payne,who etched her way into the history books in 2015 asthe first female jockey to win a Melbourne Cup,is an obvious choice to be immortalised in bronze as is the late marathon runner Kerryn McCann.
Australia's Kerryn McCann celebrates her marathon victory with son Benton.Credit:Robert Banks
The triple Olympian famouslyran through the streets of Melbourne in 2006 and upon entering theMCG and winning a Commonwealth Games gold medal created one of the venue’s most iconic and emotional moments. And no conversation would be complete without Cathy Freeman,famous for overcoming unimaginable pressure to win gold at the Sydney Olympics.
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Five-time Olympian and Sydney 2000 flag bearer Andrew Gaze believesLauren Jackson,Australia’s greatest ever basketballer,should also be recognised.
“She’d be a leading candidate without a shadow of a doubt,her contribution to the game and success speaks for itself. There are statues to recognise excellence and Lauren Jackson’s excellence in basketball is undisputable. She has my vote.”
Kate Palmer,the former Sport Australia boss who last month joined the Richmond Football Club board,says it’s crucial to recognise and celebrate sportswomen who have made outstanding contributions and enjoyed success at the highest level.
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“I just think it’s probably a reflection of the position of women firstly,but women in sport,that there are so few ways of recognising women publicly and this is Netball Victoria saying here’s a very public way of acknowledging that women are contributing in an important way to society.
“Around the T20 cricket World Cup,this time last year,would have been a perfect time to put one of our prominent cricketers outside the MCG,it would have been an amazing opportunity. There are women across every single sport who are household names and this is part of recognition more broadly.”
Cricket Australia on Monday will annouce a working group to recognise the contribution women have made to the sport. The aim is to address the imbalance and honour greats of the game through artwork in venues,statues and naming of infrastructure.
Speaking at the MCG,a year on fromleading Australia to ICC World Cup T20 victory on International Women’s Day,captain Meg Lanning offered up several worthy candidates for a statue.
“There’s plenty to be honest. There’s a lot of Olympics that women have done extremely well in. When I grew up,the Hockeyroos were a really great team throughout that era,” she said.
“You look at Lauren Jackson and people like that who have been to the top of their sport. And then in cricket you’ve got Belinda Clark and Cathryn Fitzpatrick and those sorts of players. There’s so many to choose from.”
Leave a comment to tell us which female athletes should be honoured with a statue.