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The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times
Amy Martin

What a catch! National Library celebrates Australia's sporting greats

National Library of Australia director of exhibitions Guy Hansen, inside the Grit and Gold exhibition. Picture by Gary Ramage

Where can you see the likes of Samantha Kerr, Donald Bradman, Cathy Freeman and Shane Warne in the same place?

Or for that matter, the first State of Origin shield, a Victorian Football League premiership trophy presented to Geelong, and a selection of Olympic gold medals?

The National Library of Australia opened its new exhibition Grit & Gold: Tales From a Sporting Nation on Friday, which explores some of Australia's favourite sporting stories.

Whether it is Ash Barty winning the Australian Open in 2022, Betty Cuthbert's Golden Girl moment at the 1956 Olympics or cricket's Bodyline series of 1932-33, Grit & Gold celebrates sporting stories that bring Aussies together.

"Sport is like a storytelling machine - sporting events, or games or races or famous spectacles just generate great stories, which people tell again and again," National Library of Australia director of exhibitions Guy Hansen said.

National Library of Australia director of exhibitions Guy Hansen, inside the Grit and Gold exhibition. Picture by Gary Ramage

"Sometimes it's about the personalities, sometimes it's about the event.

"Whatever is happening in Australian society is happening in sport, but just turned up to 11. So the same sorts of problems, issues, challenges, excitement, and all those sorts of things are happening in sports, just perhaps with a little bit more colour and sometimes larger personalities.

"It's a really good window into Australian history and culture."

Other material in the exhibition includes scorecards, trophies, books, pamphlets, photographs, drawings and clothing relating to swimming, tennis, cricket, the Olympics and Paralympics, NRL, AFL, sailing and boxing to name a few.

The 160 items on display are drawn from the collections of the National Library of Australia and other national cultural institutions, photographic archives, sporting museums, and local sports associations and clubs.

Visitors will also get to enjoy an opportunity to sit and read in the exhibition's book nook, which features a selection of sporting biographies.

Amongst the items is a letter written to the Olympic committee during the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.

Chinese-Australian John Ian Wing was just a teenager at the time but had written to the committee to suggest a sign of unity that the Olympics could make.

National Library of Australia director of exhibitions Guy Hansen, inside the Grit and Gold exhibition. Picture by Gary Ramage

"He suggested that at the end of the games, all the athletes come in together and walk in together rather than in their separate team groups or their nation groups," Dr Hansen said.

"That was at a point where there was a lot of tension in the world - the Soviet Union was moving into Hungary, and there was also a conflict over the Suez Canal. So there was a lot of concern and the world was on the precipice of major wars.

"And this young teenager suggested let's do this nice thing and they did and they still do it today."

Grit & Gold: Tales from a Sporting Nation is at the National Library of Australia until November 5. Entry is free.

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