Anti-Muslim post shadows Nova Peris' election to Olympic sport board
The 54-year-old joined the board of the government-funded national federation last month, nearly three decades after she played in the Hockeyroos' triumph at the 1996 Atlanta Games, becoming the first Indigenous woman to win Olympic gold for Australia.
Hailing her as a legend of the sport, Hockey Australia president Ross Sudano said Peris would be a powerful advocate for the women's game and regional communities, 'enriching our increasingly diverse board'.
But Peris' re-posting of the anti-Islam rhetoric has brought into question her fitness to sit on the board of an organisation that receives $9.5 million a year from the Australian Sports Commission and whose diversity policy includes a focus on multicultural communities.
The post was made by a since deactivated account on X on April 14 above a cartoon which depicted a drowning Muslim man pleading for help before turning on his rescuers in a boat labelled 'England'. The heading below the image read: 'The path of Islam is always the same'.
Peris distanced herself from the comment when contacted by this masthead.
'I absolutely do not share the views expressed in that post, more importantly that account no longer exists and hasn't done so in many months,' she said in a text message.
She did not answer why she had shared the post, a screenshot of which has been published on the social media platform and in an article by the National Indigenous Times.
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