Ahead of the Australia Day celebrations Olympians Kaarle McCulloch and Kevin Chavez have been announced as Lismore’s 2022 Australia Day Ambassadors.
Kaarle was a medal-winning cyclist in the 2012 London Olympic Games and rode in two events at the 2020 Tokyo Games, while Kevin was a diver the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.
Mayor Steve Krieg said Council is thrilled to have Kaarle and Kevin as our Australia Day Ambassadors. ‘This Olympic duo have a long list of accomplishments to their names and we are honoured to welcome them both as our guests on the day, give an Australia Day address and help present our 2022 Australia Day Awards.
Cyclist Kaarle McCulloch
Kaarle McCulloch is a recently retired professional track sprint cyclist. With a career spanning 15 years, Kaarle achieved many accolades in her career including Olympic Bronze at the London 2012 Olympic Games, becoming World Champion 4 times, 21 Oceania Championships and 15 Australian Championships.
McCulloch’s personal highlight was her 500m Time Trial gold medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast. Winning in front of a home crowd was a special moment that she will cherish for life.
McCulloch has been active within sport in Australia in advocating for the rights of all athletes and is a member of three separate athlete advisory groups. Sport has come a long way since Kaarle began and she has successfully helped advocate for equal pay and prize money on the track for females, as well as being a voice for all athletes. She is now focusing on finishing a teaching degree and her ultimate ambition is to help young people reach their maximum potential whether that be sport, education, or life in general.
Diver Kevin Chavez
Kevin Chavez was born in Mexico and began diving at the age of five. It was clear from that young age that he had talent for the sport and became the junior world champion in 2010.
In 2014 he suffered a bad knee injury and it was thought that he would not compete again. However, he had an opportunity to rehabilitate the injury in Australia and in 2015 successfully rehabilitated the injury and started competing again.
Chavez began winning domestic competitions and he became an Australian citizen and competed for Australia. He jumped at the opportunity and in 2016 he realised his life-long dream of competing at the Olympic Games.
In 2017 Chavez suffered another bad injury in his shoulder a week out from the 2017 World Championships. Despite recovering from the injury, he decided in 2020, when the Olympics were postponed, to focus on other areas of his life which include coaching the next generation of diving stars and also applying for the Australian Defence Force.
The couple will be at the 2022 Australia Day Awards and Citizenship Ceremony to be held on Wednesday, January 26 at 9am at Lismore City Hall.
The pretty people. Not a blemish.
Are they TV actors or the real thing?
Lismore is in the country therefore good-looking TV materail city stars do not represent the farming area.
Olympians. Well everyone in Lismore plays sport, at least bowls at the local bowling club.
So the local promotion has got hold of the Australia Day Awards because the local economy has gone bad and they need some Tourist headlines.
The designs on the brickwork looks so great, so Lismore-ish.
Abolish Australia Day, not the day to celebrate!! Shame job on these two for promoting it