Champion Athlete & Performance & School Psychologist
Congratulations is extended to Gayelene for being awarded 2024 Elite Legend of the Sport for her world class performance in the 1980’s and her ongoing contribution to elite sport.
Growing up in outback Australia in a family of eight, Gayelene Clews represented her country in two sports, before becoming the world’s top ranked female Olympic Distance Triathlete in 1985. Gayelene earnt her number one world ranking whilst being the only mother on the professional circuit.
The foundations for her sporting success were evident at Cyril Jackson Senior High School where she attended from 1973 until graduating in 1977.
Following school, Gayelene completed a Bachelor of Arts and later, a Masters in Sports Science majoring in Psychology. She continued to compete at the highest level, winning the Open Cross-Country national title again in 1978. In the early 1980s, she was one of the first athletes to compete in the emerging sport of triathlon, winning the Australian title in 1984 and established her dominance in world rankings. When she retired from competing, she merged her love of sport, competitive edge and intrinsic knowledge of the human condition in working with a number of world class individual athletes and teams as a performance psychologist.
Gayelene coached athletes to medals in world championships and, as the 2000 Australian Olympic Team Psychologist, she contributed to Women’s Water Polo, exciting Olympic gold medal. Gayelene has helped hundreds of elite athletes fine-tune their mental skills to win state, national and world championship medals across a wide range of sports, both in Australia and overseas.
Gayelene is passionate about helping people excel in all aspects of life. In 2015, Gayelene released her ground breaking book “Wired to Play: The Metacognitive Athlete”, on minimising symptoms of mental ill health by using the opportunities available through sport and exercise to build resilient, self-aware and connected communities. Her research, and interviews with many of Australia’s and World’s elite athletes and coaches, enabled her to present a very powerful argument for the critical role sport and exercise play in wellbeing and academic success.
n addition to her sporting success, Gayelene spent over ten years as a School Psychologist, in part to support her children’s academic journeys. All three went on to achieve outstanding academic success and University scholarships. Gayelene has helped thousands of students develop a holistic approach to life to find their “extraordinary”. Now a resident of Canberra, for her sporting success at school and beyond and her extra-ordinary contribution through supporting athletes in a number of fields, Gayelene Clews is named as a Champion of CJ.