Swan Hill’s May Ward received the ultimate recognition for her water skiing career when she was inducted into the Oceania International Waterski and Wakeboard Federation’s Hall of Fame last month.
Ms Ward said she was humbled to have her career acknowledged in front of a crowd of 700 people at the event in New Zealand.
“It was an absolute honour to be inducted,” Ms Ward said.
“I felt very privileged, especially since only one other Australian (Jodi Skipper) has been inducted into the Hall of Fame.”
Ms Ward grew up in Townsville and was working as a nurse when she discovered water skiing.
Although she’s a multiple Australian Championship winner and World Champion silver medallist, Ms Ward said she was a late starter in the sport she loved.
“I was 18 when I started, while most people start young at around five or six,” she said.
“I just stepped on the skis and that was it, I fell in love with it.
“As soon as I watched actual competitive skiing I knew that’s what I wanted to do.”
She started skiing because of the convenience of it.
“I was always an athlete, but water skiing was something that I was able to fit around my unpredictable nursing work hours,” she said.
“You can ski rain, hail or shine.”
Ms Ward joined a water skiing club and entered the North Queensland water skiing championships in 1961, winning the slalom event.
“That was my first major competition,” she said.
“I never social skied and always trained as a competition skier.
“I have always had a very competitive attitude towards skiing, it was like I was skiing to achieve something.”
Ms Ward was invited to visit Swan Hill in 1962 by water skiers Cliff and Jess Ptzki.
It was in Swan Hill where she was introduced to her husband John who was also training to be a professional water skier for the state squad.
They trained on Lake Boga and at Bridgewater on the Loddon River, and were often visited by international water skiers wanting to train.
The couple has two children – a son and daughter — who “preferred other sports” to water skiing.
She skied at Moomba from 1963 to 1969 and represented Australia four times at the International Championships.
In 1967, Ms Ward won the coveted Gold Oscar at the Australian Championships, becoming only one of two women to do so.
To win the Gold Oscar, she won all three events (tricks, jumps and slalom) at the championships.
In 1969, she represented Australia at the World Championships in Copenhagen where she won silver for her preferred discipline, the slalom.
“The Gold Oscar was incredible, but the silver was such a big achievement,” she said.
That year marked the last time Ms Ward competed at a World Championship, retiring from the sport she loved in 1970.
She went on to be a midwife at the Swan Hill Hospital for 30 years and taught water skiing to local children on Lake Boga.
She said her family was essential to her water skiing career.
“John was very supportive of me and my career,” she said.
“You don’t get to this level of competition without the love and support of your family.”
To read more about this story, grab a copy of Monday’s Guardian (March 27).
