The Australian women’s 4 x 100 freestyle relay team were awarded gold in London and today, Australia Day, they will receive another medal, the Order of Australia Medal. Alicia Coutts, Cate Campbell, Brittany Elmslie and Yolane Kukla will all receive the honour, Libby Trickett and Melanie Schlanger, who were also part of the team have already received the honour, Trickett in 2005 and Schlanger in 2008.
”It’s obviously exciting to win an Olympic gold medal, but not many people get the honour of getting an Order of Australia medal,” Coutts told the Canberra Times.
”I’m pretty sure there’s not as many Order of Australia medals out there as there are Olympic gold medals, so it’s very exciting.”
The Order of Australia Medal is given out to those who have accomplished an achievement worthy of recognition determined by the Council of the Order of Australia and the Governor General. The award was first given out in 1975 and is awarded on two times a year, on Australia Day and the Queen’s Birthday in June.
There have been 603 recepients of the medal before this year, a list that includes swimmers such as Grant Hackett, Susie O’Neill, Michael Klim, Jessicah Schipper and Ian Thorpe.