Petria Thomas OAM

Petria Thomas OAM

“Hi, I’m Petria Thomas.

Winning gold at the Athens Olympics was one of the highlights of my life.

Although I had some tough times getting there, my personal team always supported me. Everyone in sport deserves that kind of encouragement.

Play by the Rules is a great resource for everyone in sport to remind them of their rights and responsibilities in keeping sport fair and fun.

Play by the Rules is supported by the Australian, state and territory governments.”   

Petria Thomas OAM Transcript 2

Playing by the rules is a vitally important part of sport. I was involved in elite sport for a long, long time and even now I still play local basketball and I like to abide by the rules and play in the spirit of the game. I think it’s important that everyone do that.

I think that it’s important for young people to pick the qualities that they admire in sport stars and try and block out those that are a bit more undesirable. There’s a lot of great role model sport stars around, whether it be men or women in all different sports around, and I encourage the young people to pick those qualities out of those great competitors and follow those sorts of things.

A lot of people play sport and there are a lot of very keen parents and supporters on the sidelines – it’s really important for those people, the supporters and the parents and the coaches, to play by the rules as well. It’s really important and it teaches the kids a lesson to respect the referees and to abide by the decisions and things like that.

It’s very important for those supporters and parents to play by the rules as well and do the right thing by their kids.

Hear Petria speak about Play by the Rules and about her experience in sport below