Article Written by Jake Santa Maria | The West Australian
An Aussie Tour de Force and a mastery of the greens have Ben O’Connor and Hannah Green firmly in contention for the SportWest WA Sports Star of the Year award.
They join Olympic champions Nina Kennedy and Matt Wearn along with swimmer Iona Anderson, cricketer Mitch Marsh, Australia water polo captain Zoe Arancini, surfer Jack Robinson, dual Brownlow Medallist Patrick Cripps, netballer Sophie Garbin, diver Maddison Keeney and tennis star Matt Ebden on the shortlist for the prestigious award.
While Green couldn’t quite reach Olympic glory, narrowly missing out on a medal for the second Games in a row, finishing one shot off the podium in Paris, she established herself among the golfing elite in 2024.
A previous WA Sports Star of the Year winner in 2019, Green laid down an early maker claiming a dramatic HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore to win her fourth LPGA Tour title in just her second start of the season. She then defended her JM Eagle LA Championship in April before completing a wire-to-wire win at the BMW Ladies Championship in South Korea.
In doing so she became just the third Australian after World Golf hall of famers Karrie Webb and Jan Stephenson to win three LPGA events in a single season to reach a career-high No.5 in the world and claim a second Greg Norman Medal.
O’Connor made the big call last year to sit out the Tour de France but it worked wonders for the 29-year-old who had struggled to replicate the heights of his fourth-place finish in 2021.
O’Connor looked refreshed claiming stage six of the Vuelta a Espana, giving him a stage win at all three grand tours.
It also put him in the red jersey as he came desperately close to becoming just the third Australian to win a grand tour before star Primoz Roglic wrested the lead back in a brutal stage 19 climb. O’Connor held on for second, becoming just the fifth Australian to finish on the general classification podium at a grand tour.
2024 WA Sport Star Finalists:
Ben O’Connor | Cycling
Hannah Green | Golf
Iona Anderson | Swimming
Jack Robinson | Surfing
Maddison Keeney | Diving
Matt Ebden | Tennis
Matt Wearn | Sailing
Mitchell Marsh | Cricket
Nina Kennedy | Athletics
Patrick Cripps | Australian Rules Football
Sophie Garbin | Netball
Zoe Arancini | Water Polo