Maitland equestrian superstar Matt Ryan hung up the reins on his Olympic career long ago, but not before earning himself a spot in Australian Olympic folklore.
When Harry Gordon, the official historian of the Australian Olympic Committee, compiled his top 100 Australian Olympians, released on Sunday, he could not look past the three-time gold medal winner.
Ryan also made the cut in Gordon’s top 50 that was released in 2005, but this time joins some of the nation’s most notable and recent celebrity sports stars including three-time Beijing gold medallist Stephanie Rice, diver Matthew Mitcham and basketball player Lauren Jackson, who all made their debut on the elite list.
Ryan’s Olympic dreams became a reality at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics after previously being selected as a reserve for the three-day eventing team at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and failing to get the call up.
In Barcelona, Ryan took the eventing world by storm, winning gold in both the individual and team three-day event.
He became the first Australian to win two gold medals in the same event since Lawrence Morgan, who did so the same way in Rome in 1960.
After missing the podium at Atlanta in 1996, Ryan joined forces with fellow top 100 members Andrew Hoy and Phillip Dutton, along with Stuart Tinney, in an iconic gold medal performance at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
Following their performance the team lapped the Sydney venue three times to the theme song of the The Man From Snowy River.
The youngest of four Ryan brothers, Matt grew up under the watchful eye of a family of equestrian enthusiasts at Black Hill.
His eldest brother and manager of the New South Wales Equestrian Centre at Lochinvar, Heath, is still in pursuit of his own Olympic glory, after making the Olympic team for the first time for this year’s Beijing Games, and said his younger brother’s achievements were a benchmark for the family.
“I think he would be very proud to be in the top 100 Olympians,” Heath said.
“As his close family we could all see what went into those performances.
“No-one really wants to hear about when they are down, that is the flip side of it all, so we know just how much it cost him to get those golds.
“We are all extremely proud of him and I think he sets the bar very high.
“The rest of the family definitely aspire to that height in their respective fields.”
Heath said that his brother’s Olympic success was the product of a lifetime of education about what really mattered in the world of equestrian.
“Our father is a vet and our mother was always heavily interested in equestrian, so there was always an emphasis on what was right for the horse and the wellbeing of your horse,” Heath said.
After moving to the United Kingdom for the first time in 1984, Matt returned to work with his older brother at the Lochinvar facility in 1987.
But as his Olympic career took off Ryan returned to the UK where he now lives and returns frequently to the visit his family.
He is expected to return to the Hunter within the next week to visit family.
There will be one other Maitland resident cheering for their relative after the top 100 list was released.
Maitland’s Mary Maloy is the grandmother of Queensland kayaker Ken Wallace, whose gold medal performance in the K1 500m race at the Beijing Olympics earnt him spot on Gordon’s revised list.