“If you can change the way that you see the world, you can literally change the world.” Forty-three year-old Warren Macdonald is the toughest ever Australian sportsperson, no matter which way you look at it. Macdonald’s life was going along reasonably normally until an horrific climbing accident almost killed him. He had both legs amputated above the knee after a massive piece of rock face on which he was climbing broke off and crushed him. It was the middle of the night and he was trapped beneath the massive rock in a river bed….with the water rising. Macdonald and his companion tried for most of the night to move the rock. All to no avail.

For almost two days Macdonald waited, trapped underneath the rock, while his companion, a man he’d only just met, went in search for help. TWO DAYS. “We decided that he would hike out and I got to tell you, I mean, I met the guy the day before I don’t think I ever felt so lonely watching him walk away…” Macdonald told CNN. At one point Macdonald hallucinated that a group of businessmen were with him, explaining to him how he could will himself from beneath the rock. He said he was devastated when he realised he could not. When rescuers arrived, it took two and a half hours to free him using hydraulic jacks to break the rock. Turns out the giant slab of rock crushing Macdonald’s legs weighed a tonne. Asked by CNN how much pain he was in while he waited for help, Macdonald replied: “Indescribable really. I mean, you wonder how much pain somebody can withstand before you actually just die from pain and that definitely was going through my mind.”

Throughout the entire ordeal, Macdonald stayed conscious. He was taken to hospital where his legs were amputated from above the knee joint. Imagine yourself being young, active, an adventure seeker, a mountain climber, a hiker, a lover of all things outdoors, and to have your legs taken from you. Imagine the toughness you’d need to get through that. Imagine the psychological torment of it all. Would you give up? It would be the easiest way, surely. Warren Macdonald didn’t give up. In fact, he says the accident ‘sped him up’. He turned his tragedy into triumph. He showed the world how tough he was. Ten months after his amputation he climbed Tasmania’s Cradle Mountain with the help of a wheelchair. He achieved a series of other, tougher, climbs in the months that followed. In February 2003, barely six years after the accident that changed his life, Macdonald became the first double above-knee amputee to reach the summit of Africa’s tallest peak, Mt Kilimanjaro (19,222ft). Next, he again created history in an ascent of America’s tallest cliff face, El Capitan.

He is also the only above-knee amputee to ascend Canada’s frozen waterfall, the 600 ft. ‘Weeping Wall’ in Alberta. Macdonald’s story is the greatest, toughest story in Australian sport because not only did he overcome great adversity, he made himself a winner from it. Macdonald forced himself to use his tragedy as a spur to make him the best human being he could be. His book, A Test of Will, is one of the most inspirational ever written. There is no greater triumph, no tougher test. Macdonald says his accident taught him the most valuable lesson he has ever received. “I think the biggest lesson I learned was how we create our own reality, how it always — I think I always felt that to an extent, but after coming through this I came away knowing that.”

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Marathon swimmer Des Renford is unlucky to be pipped for top billing in the Holden Toughest Sportspeople countdown.
Renford conquered the English Channel more times than any other Australian and lived by the words ‘Nothing great is easy.’
He was a champion junior swimmer before he quit racing to concentrate on lifesaving.
At 39, he became interested in long distance swimming and, after only a small amount of training, he entered a 24-mile race across Port Phillip Bay. He failed to finish and was rushed to hospital, but because no-one else finished he was awarded third place.
Renford was successful in each of his 19 attempts to cross the Channel and became known as the ‘King of the Channel’ for a time in the 1970s.
His bravery was underlined after he finished one of the 20 mile crossings in gale force winds, another after being run over by a Hovercraft.
After his first crossing of the Channel, Renford turned around to swim back to England only to suffer a dislocated shoulder when an escort boat ran into him.
In the final of a three race series against rival Brit Kevin Murphy, Renford was pulled unconscious from the near freezing waters of Loch Ness after battling atrocious conditions for six and a half hours. He was then placed in intensive care.
Renford had three heart attacks while swimming. The first in 1985, the second in 1987, before a fatal heart attack claimed his life while swimming at his local pool on New Year’s Eve in 1999.

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Les Darcy – the greatest boxer this country has ever known – pounded the best of the best before his untimely death in America, aged just 21.
The Maitland Wonder was one of the first great sons of Australia.
At one stage he was apprenticed to a blacksmith, but his natural ability in the ring soon had him turning professional.
A great Australian, the middle- and heavyweight champion’s life was not without controversy.
Darcy refused to enlist for World War I, choosing instead to ply his trade and help his family achieve financial security.
His decision propelled the universally loved champ to Australia’s enemy number one. His actions were called unpatriotic and he fled to America to escape criticism.
Darcy’s stance was sixty years in front of Mohammed Ali’s very similar refusal to take part in the Vietnam War. Like Darcy, Ali was thrown barb after barb by his government. Both men were stripped of their titles. It was Ali’s plight which helped vindicate Darcy’s own decision.
Darcy argued he had offered to enlist for Australia as soon as he had secured his family’s future, but was refused by authority’s intent on using him as a pawn. Not long before his death he enlisted in the American Aviation Reserve Corps.
Politics aside, Darcy was a superstar in the ring. One of the famous men of the world, he was feted and written about in all of the world’s major newspapers.
His ferociousness in the ring was legendary. By 15 he was fighting and beating grown men.
He won 45 of 49 professional fights and countless others on the tent circuit.
After his body was transported back to Australia following his death from blood poisoning after complications from an infected tooth, an estimated 700,000 people filed passed his coffin to pay their respects.
Later it was revealed that his mother had twice refused him permission to enlist for Australia – meaning the tough man of Australian boxing had withstood the criticism of the entire nation to stand by his mother’s wishes; a very tough act indeed.

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Motorcycle legend Mick Doohan has crashed into the number four spot on my countdown of Australia’s toughest sportspeople.
A devastating 1992 crash left him with serious and permanent damage to his right leg.
In true Doohan style, the motorcycling great recovered from that career-defining crash and forged a future that exuded toughness.
He first mounted a motorcycle at the tender age of nine. What started as a bit of off-road fun became a serious passion when he moved to the Gold Coast and launched his road-racing career.
Doohan joined Australian great and fellow tough man Wayne Gardner in his debut year in the 500 cc world championships in 1989.
But why did Doohan leave Gardner behind at number 15 on our Holden Colorado tough debate?
Both are icons of their sport, both boast impeccable credentials and both have stared fear in the face and defied it.
It is Doohan’s status as one of the greatest ever racers in the history of a sport that exemplifies toughness that has seen him reach the chequered flag ahead of his former team mate.
How is this for an impressive resume: five-time 500cc world champion, 54 Grand Prix wins, 58 pole positions and 95 podium finishes.
In a sport not for the faint hearted, it is often an athlete’s ability to relentlessly return to face their demons rather than their credentials that define their icon status.
While Doohan had a far lower accident rate than his competitors, thanks to his faultless bike handling skills, he was not without his bout of serious injuries and broken bones. These included breaks to his leg, collarbone, shoulder and wrist, just to name a few.
It was the 1992 crash which reshaped the remainder of his career. He had a restricted range of movement in his right leg, which, as you could imagine, would be debilitating to a motorcyclist who relies heavily on their legs when using the rear brake of their machine. Doohan’s team created a hand-operated rear breaking system to counteract these difficulties and ensure the legendry rider could line up on the grid again.
Doohan announced his retirement in 1999 when injuries finally got the better of him.
In a somewhat fitting tribute, Dreamworld amusement park has honoured Doohan with a motorcycle-style roller coaster aimed to strike fear into the hearts of all who dare to ride it.

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At number five in the toughest ever Aussie sportspeople is Susie Maroney, arguably the toughest of all female athletes.
Maroney’s story is a triumph over hardship born out of bravery and an ironclad will to succeed.
She started swimming to combat chronic asthma.
From age 14 she trained six hours a day, six days a week back and forth across Sydney’s Coogee Beach.
Among her many achievements, Maroney was the youngest Australian to swim the English Channel, aged 15.
At 17 she completed a gruelling two-way crossing of the Channel in 17 hours and 14 minutes, the fastest effort ever by a female.
She holds the record for the longest ever non-stop swim, a 208km slog from Mexico to Cuba, and was the first person to swim the 180km Florida Straits from Cuba to America and she.
But it isn’t just swimming that shows Maroney’s undoubted courage, guts and determination.
In 2007, Maroney revealed she was born with cerebral palsy, hiding it from the nation in fear of being ridiculed.

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We’re inside the top 10 of our countdown to Australia’s toughest sportsperson so to get a gig at number six you know Michael Groom is made of the tough stuff.

Born into a family of mountain climbers, Groom’s destiny was determined from a young age. At the tender age of 10 he inched himself over a 100 metre cliff for the first time.

His inaugural abseil struck fear into his young body, a fear that would return many times over throughout his life. But this was not your normal kind of fear; it was a fear that ignited his survival instincts and pushed him beyond physical and mental barriers rarely penetrated by others.

A professional mountaineer, Groom refused to let the elements beat him. In 1987 he became the first Australian to climb Kangchenjurga, the world’s third highest mountain. What’s more, he conquered the mountain without the use of bottled oxygen or Sherpa support. This was the climb that would shape his future endeavours and instil a toughness that is characteristic of champions.

On his descent from Kangchenjurga, Groom was forced to spend a night exposed to the elements at above 8000 metres after becoming temporarily blinded. During this ill-fated night he suffered serious frostbite, which led to the amputation of the front third of each of his feet.

Confined to a wheelchair and told he would never walk again, Groom was sucked into a downward spiral in which he became addicted to painkillers for two years.

Feeling his lowest, Groom’s true spirit shone through.

Three years after his amputations he climbed Cho Oyu, the world’s sixth highest mountain. Not content to settle at that, he conquered Everest, K2, Lhotse and Makalu to round out his domination of the five highest points in the world, along with Kangchenjurga, becoming the first Australian to do so.

In a sign of his true resilience, he also claimed the mantle of being only the fourth person to climb the four highest mountains in the world without the assistance of bottled oxygen.

In another climb of Mt Everest, in 1996, eight climbers in Groom’s contingent lost their lives. Of the six who reached the summit, only two survived. In a courageous act of selflessness, Groom tethered a fellow mountaineer, who by that time was totally blind, on the descent through the most perilous sections of the mountain to bring him back to safety.

The feat meant no one would ever question Michael Groom’s toughness and courage again.

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Boxing great Jeff Fenech never shied away from a bout. The Marrickville Mauler was feared by his opponents for his tenacity in the ring.

After turning professional in 1984, Fenech won his first 11 bouts by knockout and quickly captured the hearts of Australians with his “I love youse all” catch-cry.

A true junkyard dog of the ring, Fenech could talk the talk but when he crossed over the ropes he could most definitely walk the walk.

Many agree that the three-time world champion in different weight divisions is the best boxer Australia has ever produced and his impressive pedigree undoubtedly supports this. He finished his career with 28 wins (21 by knockout), three losses and one draw.

It was that one draw that haunted Fenech throughout his career. He felt cheated by the result against Ghanaian champion Azumah Nelson in Las Vegas in 1991 that denied him a fourth world championship belt.

A fierce rivalry ensued with the Ghanaian and the two faced off again in 1992 at a famous and furious bout at Princes Park in which Fenech suffered his first career defeat. Fenech had to wait 16 years to exact revenge on Nelson when the two forty-somethings returned from retirement for one last hurrah in Melbourne earlier this year.

Fenech’s ability to resurrect his career in order to complete unfinished business epitomises not only his physical fortitude but also his competitive never-say-die attitude.

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As the undisputed ‘King’ of Queensland rugby league Wally Lewis oozed toughness. He notched up 301 first grade games with five clubs and was a foundational member of the Brisbane Broncos.

Lewis took them all on, no matter how big or small, no matter the reputation.

Aptly branded The Emperor of Lang Park, he saved his greatest performances for State of Origin games, representing the Maroons on 31 occasions.

Lewis, in large part, gave State of Origin its reputation as the toughest battle of all. As an icon of the interstate battles, the player of the series is now awarded the Wally Lewis Medal.

His silky ball skills and ability to inspire his team to seemingly impossible victories repeatedly infuriated New South Wales fans.

Lewis’ passion for his state jumper was matched only by his desire to represent his country, which he did on 33 occasions. His gallant efforts lead to his appointment to captain of the Kangaroos and in 1986 his charges became only the second team to complete an Ashes tour undefeated.

The Team of the Century five-eighth was honoured as one of six inaugural members of the Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame.

All this while battling epilepsy; a fact that was largely a secret until after Lewis finished playing. The revelation that he suffered fits during games only serves to fortify his pure toughness.

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Fear by name but not by nature.

Sue Fear perforated boundaries never before attempted by another woman in the male-dominated world of mountaineering.

Battling the unpredictable extremes of nature, Fear conquered five of the world’s 14 8000-metre peaks, battling not only the physical demands such exploits challenge but also the accompanying mental toll.

As only the second Australian woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest, Fear overcame the harrowing elements that had claimed so many lives before her.

In a devastating yet somewhat harmonic tragedy, Fear died doing what she loved. On her descent of Mount Manaslu in Nepal, Fear succumbed to the elements and tumbled into a crevasse and her premature death.

Her body remains permanently preserved on the mountain that ultimately wrestled control out of her hands and her inspirational toughness lives on in all mountaineers who retrace her steps.

Fear’s toughness carved the way for fellow females to encroach gendered boundaries and her courage stands as a monument to all those refuse to give in to fear itself.

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You don’t get the nickname Lethal for nothing.

Leigh Matthews dominated the VFL throughout the 1970s and 80s. Standing just 5’10”, Matthews kicked 915 goals in a 332 game career for Hawthorn.

By age 16 he was beating grown men in the tough Mornington Peninsula Football League.

At Hawthorn, he earned the nickname Barney – in no small part due to his liking for a blue.

His sheer strength was underlined when he smashed a behind post in half after colliding with it at Windy Hill in 1982.

As he coached, he is renowned for building tough sides out of his own mould.

He scared the life out of the Colliwobbles to take the Pies to a flag in 1990 and made the Brisbane Lions one of the most feared teams in AFL history.

In 2001, Matthews inspired the Lions to beat an undefeated Essendon in round 10 by using the line ‘If it bleeds, you can kill it’ from the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Predator. The Lions played out the rest of the season undefeated to take out the first of three consecutive premierships.

Lethal Leigh was voted the ‘Best Player of the 20th Century’s Greatest Player’ and is my eleventh toughest ever Aussie sportsperson.

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In my mind, Kieren Perkins is the greatest Olympic swimmer this country has ever produced.
His will to win, his ability to overcome adversity, his passion and drive and the very fact he had a nation to win for all show his toughness.
The great man broke 12 world and 40 Australian records in his time as the outstanding swimmer of a generation.
To put Perkins’ achievements in the right light is to say he dominated. His dominance was such he was given the nickname ‘The King of the Olympics’.
It should be considered un-Australian to not remember Perkins’ triumph in the 1500m event at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.
Barely managing to make the final because of illness, Perkins took to the blocks in lane eight in the big one and swam the race of his life to grab the gold and guarantee his status as one of Australia’s greatest ever sportspeople.
And a hell of a tough bugger, too.

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He was known as Mr Perpetual Motion, the toughest man in Rugby League.
Ray Price got the tag because of the way he bullocked his way through tackles without fear or trepidation.
As far as tough goes, Price ticks all the boxes: hard, courageous, skilful, enduring, brave and relentless. Predecessor
Price was a legend at Parramatta, the enforcer in the Eels’ 1981, ’82 and ’83 premiership hat-trick.
Time and time again Price has been named as the hardest man to play the game, be it representing the Eels, his legendary battles for New South Wales or for Australia.
He was voted the best lock forward four times and won the Rothman medal, awarded to Rugby League’s best player.
There is no doubt that when you think tough, you think Ray Price.

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Bill Roycroft. Here is a man who left a hospital bed, severely injured, to compete in the Olympics.
And compete he did. In fact, his exploits at the Rome games of 1960 will be forever remembered.
With the Australian equestrian team well placed after two days of competition, Roycroft’s mount somersaulted and landed on top of him. The fall seriously injured Roycroft, breaking his collarbone, injuring his neck and he was left concussed.
Not to be outdone, Roycroft climbed back on his mount and finished the course, leaving the Aussies in a great position to win.
Afterwards he was given oxygen and flown to hospital.
The team lost a rider on the last day of competition and looked in drastic trouble. That was until a dazed and groggy Roycroft climbed out of his hospital bed to head back to compete.
Doctors refused to clear him from hospital and at one stage Roycroft threatened to leave in his underwear. After finally being discharge, despite disapproval from medical staff, Roycroft competed in the final event, the show jump.
He was heavily sedated, unable to bend and his had to be dressed. He was also 45 years old.
Helped on to his horse, Roycroft rode a flawless round over 12 jumps to give Australia the gold.
 In total he competed in five Olympics, winning one gold and three bronze medals, and was the flag bearer at the 1968 Mexico Olympics.

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It is hard enough to win a motorcycle grand prix, but try doing it with a broken bone in your wrist. Wayne Gardner, the Wollongong Whiz, did just that in 1990 to claim his second consecutive Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island. He had 25 injections in order to line up on the grid and, as if that wasn’t enough, he also had to grapple with a broken fairing as he raced towards the checkered flag. In a career that spanned 15 years, Gardner broke more bones than most trainee doctors could name. While pain is something Australia’s first world 500cc champion became familiar with, he never let it win the battle and his ability to get back on the bike time and time again epitomised his toughness. After retiring in 1992, Gardner decided he hadn’t pushed the hazardous boundaries of adversity far enough so the adrenalin junkie crossed motorsport codes and slipped behind the wheel of a V8 Supercar. Nicknamed Captain Chaos after a string of crashes while driving for the Holden Racing Team, Gardner finished third in the Bathurst 100 in 1993, the toughest of all touring car races in this country. A champion across two of the most perilous sports known to man, Gardner retired after 24 years in the world of motorsport, leaving behind him a legacy of a tenacious, determined and fierce competitor.

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No matter who they were, The Kid would take them on.
Dermott Brereton is number 16 in the countdown of Australia’s Toughest Ever Sportspeople.
Not only was he a star centre half forward, Brereton was hard an unrelenting. Teams knew that if you could beat Brereton, you went a long way to beating Hawthorn.
His charge through Essendon’s huddle during in 1988 demonstrated Brereton’s single-minded take no prisoner attitude.
Brereton loved to crush opponents in tackles or lay them out with hip and shoulders. His bump on Essendon’s Paul Van Der Haar at Waverley will go down as one of the best in AFL history.
But Brereton’s true test of courage came in the opening minutes of the 1989 grand final.
Indiscriminately charged by Geelong’s Mark Yates at the opening bounce, a shattered Brereton remained unmoved on the ground for several seconds. Refusing to leave the field, Brereton was helped by trainers into the forward pocket, in severe pain and vomiting.
Minutes later, he marked strongly to symbolise to Hawthorn players and fans alike that the Hawks would not be beaten that day, no matter what the Cats did.
He passed blood during half-time, but finished the match to be one of the Hawks best, in the most courageous individual display in AFL grand final history.
Brereton was reported 17 times in his career and suspended a whooping 39 weeks.

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There is no doubt champion squash player Heather MacKay ranks amongst Australia’s greatest ever sportspeople, dominating her chosen sport in a career spanning two decades. Between 1960 and 1981 she dropped just two matches (one in 1960, the other in ‘62); in turn collecting two world titles, 16 British Opens (known as the unofficial world title) and 14 consecutive Australian Amateur titles. MacKay started playing squash for fitness and won her first junior tournament without ever having received coaching. She battled hard to overcome considerable hardship. During the totally amateur days of the 1960s and ‘70s, MacKay was forced to scrimp and saving to afford to travel around the world to compete in tournaments. On her first visit to England, MacKay landed in London, almost broke, without knowing anyone or a place to stay. She pioneered the use of strength training and was known throughout her career as one of the fittest and hardest working squash players in the world. She was the first player to be inducted into the Women’s International Squash Players Hall of Fame. Adding to her list sporting achievements, MacKay was twice selected an All-Australian hockey player despite never having the time to play at representative level.

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He had the toughest job in Australian sport and did it with ease – creating the greatest team our country has ever known.
Under Steve Waugh’s leadership the Australian cricket team played tough, uncompromising cricket in the exact manner as their captain.
With his trusty frayed red handkerchief – that went into battle with Waugh in each of his 168 Test matches – and battered Baggy Green, Waugh made us respect our cricketers again. And, along with Shane Warne, he inspired a generation to dust off the pads and get back on the park.
If Steve Waugh only taught Australians one thing, it was surely that cricket was about winning. He talked about the mental war, the disintegration of his opponents more than anything else.
He built an Australian team that was feared by every rival cricketing nation, a team that played more like an army than anything else.
Would Ricky Ponting have become the champion he is without Steve Waugh to show him the way? I doubt it.
‘Tugga’ made centuries his business – he made them with torn calf muscles and broken ribs, even a broken hand. He wore cricket balls on the body as if it were a hobby, without fear, to get the Aussies home.
In a test in Brisbane in 1988, at the start of his career, Waugh showed the West Indies he was sick of their tactic of bowling bouncers at him by bouncing the much feared WI skipper Viv Richards on three consecutive deliveries.
His courage is the stuff of legend. He stood up to giant West Indies fast bowler Curtly Ambrose on a green top in Trinidad in 1995 in an incident that gave the Aussies the spirit they needed to win back the Frank Worrell Trophy after almost two decades of West Indies dominance.
In the third test of the same series he took blow after blow on the body and batted for nine hours, surviving a barrage of WI brutality, to score 200 and give Australia the win.
Adding to Waugh’s folklore is the time he broke Jason Gillespie’s leg with his head in a horrific collision in the field in Sri Lanka in 1999, nearly losing his life in the process. But in true Steve Waugh fashion, he left his hospital bed to play in the next Test.
Or add the courage of the 1999 World Cup win when, thanks to Waugh’s outstanding leadership and fine batting, Australia beat the odds to be crowned the top team in One Day Cricket once again.
Steve Waugh is number 18 in our toughest ever Australians.

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‘Stick it up ‘em’ was the catch-cry of EJ ‘Teddy’ Whitten and boy did he stick it up his opponents on the football field.
Everyone knows Ted Whitten was a legend, even before the AFL granted him legend status in its Football Hall of Fame.
With the moniker “Mr Football”, EJ epitomised everything that is Aussie rules football – determination, ruthlessness and spirit.
The Footscray die-hard played 321 VFL games for his beloved Doggies, kicked 360 goals and was named the centre-half back and captain of the AFL Team of the Century.
But Teddy’s true love was the Big V. An avid promoter of State-of-Origin football, Whitten took no greater delight than in beating South Australia, the team he – as well as thousands of Victorians – dubbed the Croweaters.
Whitten commanded a presence unmatched by any other football identity; indeed, he was bigger than the game itself.
One of the most enduring moments in the history of Australian football is when EJ, staring death in   the face, ventured to the MCG for one last State of Origin showdown.
Suffering blindness from the cancer that would eventually take his life, Whitten was accompanied by his son, Ted Junior, on a lap of honour as footy fans great and small said goodbye.
That day, the hardest men in the game cried openly

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