Danielle Woodward (AU)

2025 Class | Champion

Danielle Woodward’s silver medal in the women’s K1 slalom in Barcelona was historic. The Victorian kayaker became the first Australian woman to win a canoe/kayak medal at the Olympics, as well as the first Australian to win a medal in a slalom event. She went on to compete in the next two Olympics, placing 12th in Atlanta in 1996 and 8th in Sydney in 2000. In 2002, Danielle was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for her services to sport, particularly to slalom canoeing and Olympic sport.

Danielle has given back to her sport as an athlete representative to the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority, Sports Commission, Institute of Sport, and Olympic Committee. She joined the International Canoe Federation Board of Directors in 2018.  She has accomplished all this while working with the Australian Federal Police from 1986 to 2024, rising from federal agent to detective to detective superintendent and awarded the Australian Police Medal for Distinguished Service in 2020.

Danielle’s extraordinary success as an athlete, her dominance as a competitor, and her leadership in canoe sport were all achieved despite years of enduring sexual abuse by someone within her immediate community. Her deep trust in her coach and her drive to succeed left her vulnerable—yet she carried that burden in silence, even as she stood on the Olympic podium. It was only later in life that she fully understood the weight of what she had endured and the extraordinary resilience it took not only to survive, but to triumph.