Indigenous tennis legend Evonne Goolagong Cawley was given a standing ovation at the Newcombe Medal awards, where she gave a rare insight into the obstacles she had to overcome.
One of Australia’s most famous and successful Indigenous athletes, former tennis champion Evonne Goolagong Cawley, has given a rare insight into how she blocked out the racism she encountered in the formative stages of her career.
“I went through some tough times. I went through a bit of racism,” said Goolagong Cawley in her acceptance speech after winning Tennis Australia’s Spirit Of Tennis award at the sport’s Newcombe Medal awards night this week. “But that didn’t stop me because, you know, it was that dream - achieving that dream - of playing on that magical centre court [at Wimbledon] that got me over a lot of that stuff.”Goolagong-Cawley’s anecdote was met with groans from the audience at Melbourne’s Crown Casino for the Newcombe Medal, held annually to recognise community and professional achievements in Australian tennis.
“Tennis has been fantastic for me. The rest of my family played tennis too, and enjoyed tennis, but I had that [childhood] dream,” she said. “So every time I set foot on those courts I just felt the luckiest person in the world. I was doing exactly the thing I wanted to do - play tennis. Even when I lost it really didn’t bother me for that reason because I was just lucky to be there.”
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