Biography
Nova Peris As an Aboriginal teenager and single mum, Nova Peris used her determination and self-belief to make her dreams come true. Her athletic career and list of achievements on and off the sports field are impressive. Sharing much of it with soul mate and oldest daughter Jessica made her success even sweeter. Nova Peris was the first Indigenous Australian to win an Olympic gold medal. She is one of only a handful of Australians to compete in two different sports - hockey and athletics - at the Olympics. She is also the first athlete to win international gold medals in two different sports - Olympic hockey and Commonwealth Games athletics. But perhaps her most remarkable feat is being one of just three Australian mums to have won an Olympic gold medal.
Motherhood and elite sport generally don't mix, so how has Nova managed to combine an 11-year career, which has taken her to more than 60 countries, with being a mum? Nova's mum, Joan, always believed she was destined to be something special. Sitting in a hotel foyer, just hours before her daughter, Jessica, and husband, Daniel Batman, compete at a local athletics meet, Nova describes her sporting career as a "fairytale". Nova gave birth to Jessica just one week after turning nineteen.
Many people thought her pregnancy spelled the end of a promising sporting career. "People said, 'she's gone, she's finished', and that was like waving a red flag in front of a bull," says Nova. "It was like when you want to do things for yourself, but you also want to prove people wrong. The year before I had Jessica, I'd played acclimatisation games with the Australian women's hockey team that went on to win gold in Seoul, and it inspired me. Once I had Jess I think the reality check was having so many people actually come up to me and say, 'you'll never represent Australia'. Even my own stepfather was angry at me." Nova subsequently went on to attain hockey and athletics glory, and Jessica was there nearly every step of the way.
Nova's success as an athlete is strongly linked to her life as a single mum and the bond she shares with her daughter. Their relationship was one of the few constants through her career highs and lows; it also provided Jess with a unique education. "I never had money, I got by," she says. "I got some really good sponsorships along the way and we lived a pretty good life in terms of being able to travel the world. That's one thing that money can't buy. Money can't buy talent, or the experiences of living, eating and breathing with world champions and understanding what goes through their heads." "Jessica had all that as a kid growing up. When I had Jessica she just became part of me. Never at any stage did I think to myself, 'I'm stuffed'." It's hard to imagine this strong, confident woman could ever have been written off. She shrugged off the doubters and the pessimistic reception of her pregnancy, because nothing could take the shine off expecting a child. "When I fell pregnant I was nothing other than happy and excited to be a mum. Even from a young age I had all my cousins on my hip. I'm the eldest of 38 grandchildren. I love kids and having Jessica at such a young age was the best thing that happened to me." "Jess's father was still in Queensland. I was back in Darwin. We weren't together. It was all over the place. So it wasn't like being in a relationship and wanting to buy a house. There was none of that whatsoever. It has always just been me and Jess." Nova's dreams of getting out of Darwin and creating a life for the two of them meant that wherever Nova went, Jessica went too. "Jessica was part of me.
I breastfed her until she was 10 months. When she was four months old I was back at work and going to training. I had no social life. You're committed first to your child, then your sports and your work." "I would ride my bike to the hockey centre, put her on one side of the fence while I trained starting at 6am then I would ride to childcare and drop her off before riding into town to work. I was cycling probably 30 kilometres a day on top of training and looking after Jess. It just never crossed my mind that I would do anything else." To realise her dream of representing Australia at the Olympics, Nova had to pack up her life and daughter and head to Perth where the national hockey program was based. Her decision was a calculated risk. There was no guarantee she would be selected and she faced fierce competition. Being a young mum, raising a toddler single-handedly and working part time meant she appeared little of a threat to her competition. "Jessica was two and I was 21. It was do-or-die for me. I had to get out of Darwin to go to the next level so I could make the Australian senior team. The team that I joined down there already had seven Australian players. I was either going to look really bad or look like I knew what I was doing beside those girls." "We lived with two other girls who were also playing hockey. They knew the situation financially. I slept in their sunroom. It had glass louvers, a single mattress on the floor and an electric blanket. That's where Jess and I slept for three months." As much as Nova wanted Jess with her, to achieve her goal meant that she had to concentrate on playing and training without worrying about caring for a toddler. That's where her extended family stepped in; they provided her with a support network so that Jessica had relatives around her while Nova was out of the country or competing. Nova's mum was always happy to take time off, and her sister or cousins would readily fly from Darwin to help out. But eventually Nova was forced to admit she needed additional assistance. "Mum said to me, 'send Jessica back to Darwin'. I looked at every other girl I was up against for selection and I knew I just needed that little bit extra, so I sent Jessica back. I didn't see her for nine five weeks. It was hard. "But as much as I was missing Jess, she was getting her back molars, so it wasn't a bad time to send her back," she laughs. ""The lack of sleep was killing me." Nova was selected for the Australian under-21 team to go to New Zealand. Australia won the last game 1-0. Nova scored the winner before rushing back to Darwin to be with Jessica. Several weeks later she received news that her 12 months of dedication had paid off. "My mum said, 'oh I forgot to tell you, you've got a letter from the WA hockey team'. I hadn't nominated to play for them so I said, 'Mum, show me that bloody letter', and it was WHA - Women's Hockey Australia. I'd been in the Australian women's senior team for weeks and hadn't even known." "It would have been the end of March 1992 that I left Darwin to go to Perth, and it was a year to the day that I was on a plane going to Japan to play my first international game for Australia. It took a whole year of crying, blood, sweat and tears, and sleeping on a mattress on the floor."
Four years later Nova stood on the medal dais at the Atlanta Olympics as a gold medal was placed around her neck. Now her story had captured Australia's heart. Even today she meets people who remember the memorable 60 Minutes story which featured her being reunited with Jessica after months of camp. But Nova wasn't finished. Not content with representing Australia in hockey, she was now ready to see if she could do the same in athletics. So just one month after receiving her gold medal at Atlanta Nova and Jessica set off for Melbourne to face a new challenge. "I think a lot of people were really surprised, but it wasn't as though I was going from one extreme to the other. I had done all the groundwork to make that transition. I was running for WA in 1994 and 1995 at national championships making finals. A month after the Olympics I was back training with Cathy Freeman so I was fair dinkum." Nova was so committed to her ambition that she moved to Los Angeles to train with some of the biggest names in sprinting. "That whole environment was conducive to consistently producing fast times. It was pretty awesome in a way. You'd go to a track meet and the majority of the people there were African, Caribbean and African Americans. Nobody ever judged you about who you were or where you came from, only where you crossed the line. I loved training in America purely because that environment inspired me to get out and to run fast every day." And she did precisely that. Nova quickly silenced the doubters by winning gold in the 200 metres and 4 x 100 metre relay at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur. "I'll tell any kid, there is no secret to success," she says. "It's all about 'what you put in is what you're always going to get out'." Nova's sporting profile elevated her to a national role model. In 1997, she was named Young Australian of the Year and the following year attended the Constitutional Convention at the invitation of Prime Minister, John Howard. In 2000, she was appointed to the board of the National Depression Institute and in 2001 became a treaty ambassador for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC). She spent her spare time giving motivational talks to young Australians on issues such as suicide, depression and indigenous health. "I guess people just started to see me from a different perspective," she says. "It wasn't just the mother, the hockey player cum come athlete. That was when I started to do art as well, designing coins and being at the constitutional convention. It's not like I deliberately went out with an agenda, things just came naturally to me. I did and I said." Despite Nova's busy schedule, she was always mindful that Jessica did not miss out on time with her mum. Her daughter has been there to witness many of her mum's achievements and had gained entry into a world very different from her peers. She was at Nova's side when she became the first athlete to carry the 2000 Olympic flame on Australian soil.
Their barefoot run from Uluru is one that many Australians will remember. "Everyone knew that I had a child, so they were always considerate of us," says Nova. "When I travelled, she came with me. When I was at the convention they provided a tutor for two weeks. When I had to do appearances, whether it was for television or had to travel, it was always, 'do you want your daughter to accompany you?' Jess was part of the whole package." "As a child she struggled at school because she was so worldly from a young age. She travelled a bit with me for hockey, which was hard because of the team environment, but with athletics she travelled everywhere. She'd been to 15 different countries before she turned 11; she lived with me in LA for 18 months where I tutored her." "I've never really lived a normal life in terms of the things I've done. But Jess struggled at times because she was far more mature than a lot of her peers at school. I've been outspoken on Aboriginal issues and I know there have been teachers that haven't liked me and have taken that out on her. Yes, it has been hard for Jessica. But would I change anything? No way. She's had some amazing experiences in life." Nova was proud to represent Australia in the semi finals in the 400 metres at the Sydney Olympics. She was the first person in the Commonwealth to compete in two Olympic finals in consecutive summer Olympics in different sports, a moment she remembers fondly. "I ran a personal best. A lot of people will say you should have come away with a medal, but some people have won a lot of medals and never done a personal best to get there. I ran my fastest time for a 400 metre race. We just missed out on a medal in the 4 x 400 metre relay. The bronze medal and the silver medal were there for the taking and we missed by that much [Nova indicates it was a matter of centimetres] and you kick yourself every day, over and over." While competing for Australia in South Africa Nova met 400 metre runner Daniel Batman.
In the lead up to the Olympics they became friends and great mates, there relationship developed over time and is something Nova considers to have been 'fate and destiny'. Prior to the 2002 Commonwealth Games, Nova was set to compete in the world championships at Edmonton. The wildcard was the new couple's decision not to wait to start a family. After talking to the team doctor, Nova decided to run while seven weeks pregnant as she was clocking better times in training than at the Sydney Olympics. "I really wanted to make the world champs semi-final that year. But three days leading up to it I was as sick as a dog with morning sickness. And then I just ran badly. I felt like crap and I was throwing up and there was nothing more I could do." What made it worse was that Nova couldn't hose down the speculation about her poor form, because she wanted to wait until the pregnancy was more advanced before telling "the world". "Only Daniel and I knew, not even my coach, just the team doctor. I wasn't ready to tell anyone because you say some things in track and field circles and it's everywhere." The triple whammy of pregnancy, a new relationship and pending marriage to a younger man catapulted Nova back into the headlines. "It was really odd," she says. "I never even thought about the difference in our ages until it became public and people brought it up. We don't look at ourselves and think, 'oh you're 10 years younger than me and I'm 10 years older than you'. We don't look at life like that." "Daniel was 20 when I fell pregnant with Destiny and the funny thing is for someone so young, he's done so much. We have our own home; he was already a stepfather to Jessica before he turned 21 and had already been to the Olympic Games and the world championships. He'd done all of these amazing things." Nova worked through her pregnancy and for a year following Destiny's birth, focused on a role close to her heart - the job of ATSIC treaty ambassador. She travelled around Australia, conducting workshops on the concept of a treaty between indigenous and white Australians. Just like Jessica before her, Destiny went along for the ride, often needing breastfeeding between Nova's public appearances. Jessica was 12 when her mum's new relationship blossomed and Destiny was born. Far from feeling threatened by the new addition, she couldn't have been happier. Nova has a prized photo of her looking at Destiny in her crib just after the birth. Jessica is using her hand to try and cover the tears rolling down her cheeks.
She wasn't the only one who felt a little overwhelmed to start with. "Jessica was 12 when I had Destiny, so it was like having a new baby all over again," Nova recalls. "I think I went a bit silly. I'd think, 'God was I like this with Jessica?' I wasn't, but with Destiny I'd be wiping her hands and telling people if they wanted to touch her they'd have to wipe their hands first. And then along came Jack and by the time he could crawl he was eating dirt and I didn't even worry about it. I think it comes down to being older, the way you probably think more. When I was younger I probably just reacted and it just seemed to come natural to me." There was also another unexpected development to deal with. Nova suffered a health scare after Jack was born. Her weight ballooned by 20kg and her energy levels sank. She was eventually diagnosed with depression and a thyroid condition. "I have a thyroid disorder where my metabolism is such that I take tablets and even then it's sluggish." Nova chuckles. "It's not like I'm going to be a lean, mean, fighting machine ever again." Both Nova and Daniel where busy training for the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in 2006. Unfortunately for Nova she had inherited too many injuries throughout her long career and her return to the athletic track was sidelined. Nova, Jessica, Destiny and Jack however had the joy of watching Daniel compete. "I think in a sport, once you've set a standard for yourself, it's frustrating not to be able to get better," she says. "I've seen the view from the top of the mountain, I don't need to go back there'. I'd represented Australia at a senior level for 11 years. I was happy I had Jessica, Destiny and Jacky boy. And you can't ever trade your kids in for a sporting event." "It's hard to have that inner drive when you have other little beings around you.
Jessica was hitting that age, the teenage years, and that's the time in life where as a parent you need to be on the tip of your toes and keeping an eye out. You owe it to your child to be there for them, when kids are all hormonal and vulnerable." Nova needed a break to adjust. After nearly 12 amazing years of elite competition, three babies and a new marriage, she took 12 months off to devote herself to her family. She lived a nomadic existence between Canberra and Darwin. Today she's back at work, coaching Daniel and Jessica and busy working with the federal health department. She has helped design a communication strategy to promote regular health checks for kids under the age of 14. She has also travelled to 26 communities around Australia and spoken to more than 30,000 Indigenous kids about regular checks and healthier lifestyles. She takes her job as a positive role model for young Australians seriously, but the most important kids are the three at home. "I want to instil three things in my kids," she says. "Number one: don't be lazy. Number two: don't lie. I hate laziness and lying. Number three is don't be a sook. Get up and have a go. It's amazing the number of times I've been at the track and my kids will fall over and other people will go 'oh my god' and I'll go 'get up'. That's the way that we were brought up." It's a philosophy Nova has always lived by. Now it's her time to sit back and reap the rewards as well as the personal happiness it's brought. "Daniel and I have a beautiful home, we have Jessica, Destiny and Jack, and I want one more. I've got my home just as I always wanted and life couldn't be any better. I have a great job. I'm coaching and doing all the things that I love and Daniel's career is going really well." "This is our life and we're happy. At the end of the day we're true to ourselves. We love our kids, we love each other, and we want to be with each other for the rest of our lives."