Nova Peris-Kneebone

Medal record
Competitor for  Australia
Women's Field Hockey
Olympic Games
Gold	1996 Atlanta	Team Competition
World Cup
Gold	1994 Dublin	Team Competition
Champions Trophy
Gold	1993 Amstelveen	Team Competition
Gold	1995 Mar del Plata	Team Competition
Women's Athletics
Commonwealth Games
Gold	1998 Kuala Lumpur	200 metres
Gold	1998 Kuala Lumpur	4x100m relay

Nova Maree Peris, AO, (born 25 February 1971 in Darwin, Northern Territory) is an Australian athlete. She was a representative in the Australian Women's Hockey team at the 1996 Summer Olympics becoming the first Aboriginal Australian to win an Olympic gold medal.

In 1997, she switched sports to athletics and a year later she became a double gold medalist in the 1998 Commonwealth Games (Kuala Lumpur) winning the 200m sprint with a time of 22.77 seconds and sharing in Australia's 4x100 metres relay win.

She continued to represent Australia on the athletics track, running over 200 metres at the 1999 World Athletics Championships and 400 metres at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. She made the Olympic semi-finals in her individual event and ran in the Australian 4x400 metres relay team, which finished fifth.

In the Olympic year of 2000, a portrait of her was hung in the Sporting Archibald Prize, painted by Glenda Jones.

Nova divorced Sean Kneebone and now uses her maiden name Peris.

In 2005, she sold her Olympic memorabilia to the National Museum of Australia for $140,000. It included her gold medal, hockey stick, Sydney Olympic torch and the running shoes she wore in the Sydney Olympics.

She has three children: Jessica, Destiny and Jack.

She is now a grandmother at age 40.

References

• Australian Olympic Committee
• Athletics Australia profile nova marie peris

External links

• Nova Peris homepage

Preceded by Rebecca Chambers

Young Australian of the Year 1997

Succeeded by Tan Le

Persondata
Name	Peris, Nova Maree
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	25 February 1971
Place of birth	Darwin
Date of death
Place of death