Home > Kev's Blog > 5-Nov-2014 RIP Jackie Fairweather-Gallagher

5-Nov-2014 RIP Jackie Fairweather-Gallagher

Wednesday 5 November 2014 Leave a comment Go to comments
This report was in the news today and also posted on CoolRunning where I first saw it. Also refer her Wikipedia page.

Triathlon community mourns death of Jackie Fairweather

Canberra’s sporting community is in mourning over the death of elite triathlete and marathon runner Jackie Fairweather.

Social media was awash with tributes to the Canberra-based Australian Sports Commission performance manager on Monday night.
Fairweather (nee Gallagher) was a former world champion and Commonwealth Games medallist. She had been married to Australian Olympic archery champion Simon Fairweather since in 2004.

News of her death has rocked Australia’s triathlon community. Numerous tributes were posted on social media from Monday night in which she was described as an Australian sporting legend and a loving person and remembered for her strong contribution to the triathlon community.

I had met Jackie a few times and emailed her quite a bit when I was race director the Six Foot track Marathon. Obviously I didn’t know anything about her depression, and she seemed to me that even though she was an elite athlete, she was really nice and most of our conversations were about her plans to run as part of a large entourage of Canberra runners – she was very much focussed on everything working out for her friends and husband Simon who also ran. It just brings home to me, once again, that outside of a couple you never really know anything that is happening in people’s private lives. It’s all very sad (and she is not at all the first person I have known to have committed suicide).
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