John Bertrand was Inducted into The Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1985 as an Athlete Member for his contribution to the sport of sailing and was Elevated to “Legend of Australian Sport” on Thursday 10th October 2013.

John would have you believe that his main claim to fame is that he is a proud Australian. To his fellow Australians he is much more. He is the Australian who skippered the winged keel ‘Australia 2’ to victory over Dennis Connor’s ‘Liberty’ to win the 1983 America’s Cup, breaking 132 years of American domination and, in the process, breaking the longest-running record in the history of modern sport. After being 3:1 down in the best of seven races and considered by some as the ‘Race of the Century’, on September 27, 1983, off Newport, Rhode Island, this final assault on the ‘Everest of sport’ stopped the nation like never before. It is arguably the greatest upset in modern Australian sporting history. Ask any Australian where he or she was that day, and they will remember.

The ‘Australia 2’ team victory was voted by the Confederation of Australian Sport as the greatest team performance in 200 years of Australian sport.

A world champion and Olympic medallist, John represented Australia in five America’s Cups, 1970, 1974, 1980, 1983 and 1995, and two Olympic Games, Munich 1972 and Montreal 1976, winning bronze in Montreal in the Finn Class. In over 25 years of America’s Cup campaigning, he was involved in all areas of activity, from skipper of ‘Australia 2’ to Chairman of ‘OneAustralia’.