An injury crisis could have ended his career. It put him in the Hall of Fame

Mark Knowles still has to pinch himself when he looks at the calibre of company he now joins in the Sport Australia Hall of Fame.

How on earth, he ponders, does a kid from Rockhampton end up on an honour roll shared by Don Bradman and Dawn Fraser?

Turns out, it was a mindset the four-time Olympian and Kookaburras hero honed during an injury crisis that threatened to end his dreams of hockey glory.

“I broke my ankle twice in 2003 as a 19-year-old kid, and I honestly thought even the remotest chance I’d be in the Olympic team was gone,” Knowles says.

“But when you’re young, when you’re hungry, when you want it and are not willing to take no as an answer, when you are used to working hard, I proved to myself that’s why I’d done that.

“Six months after I came back [from injury] I was an Olympic gold medallist.

“Your journey in sport or life or your relationships, it’s not always going to be this beautiful, even upward trajectory.

“How I reacted to that defined my whole 15-year career. I honestly think if I’d waited for someone to tell me to do the extra fitness or boxing session I never would have achieved anything like I did.

“I needed that period in my career, it made me just understand how much I really wanted it. I had the opportunity to sook and sulk, and move back to Brisbane because it was easy, and I chose not to.”

Knowles’ willingness to make sacrifices during that recovery phase were borne from witnessing the 2000 Sydney Olympics – “I thought ‘I’ve never seen anything like this, but I want this’.”

Those pursuits have culminated in his induction into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame, an “amazing honour” he admits triggered a period of reflection.

The 40-year-old looks back at the accolades – his 2004 Olympic gold medal, World Player of the Year and World Cup triumph among the highlights.

His experiences have made him more considered in what the nation needs to propel towards the Brisbane 2032 Olympics.

As deputy chef de mission in Paris, Knowles was consumed by the way France bonded around the Games and provided a spectacle that would be etched into its sporting folklore.

But he says Queensland is a long way off creating the same legacy, with hockey’s fate overshadowed by debate over a main athletics stadium for 2032.

Ballymore Stadium in Brisbane’s inner north is still earmarked to host the hockey, a move Knowles stresses should not be the case.

Knowles says Brisbane cannot host international fixtures at present, as there are no facilities available that meet International Hockey Federation standards, and the city is still seven turf fields short of meeting the demands of the player base.

He says regardless of the outcome of Saturday’s state election, hockey will push for another facility.

“I’m a big believer in legacy, and that part of an athlete is where you try to leave a legacy. The Olympics allows us to provide a legacy for sport in this country.”

Mark Knowles

“Ballymore, in my mind, is not the option hockey needs. We need a facility we can actually play at, prepare our teams at and get competitions coming here,” Knowles says.

“You need facilities to keep people in the game. We know that hosting international and state-level events will bring people to watch, and allows us to connect our Australian heroes with the community.

“When you get a facility, you get competition. When you get competition, you get more people watching.”

In addition to high-performance facilities, Knowles is adamant athlete development cannot be held off until after the Los Angeles showcase in 2028.

He says sporting role models need to be front and centre of pathway initiatives to promote “the time it takes to develop great young athletes”, a mission which has taken a severe hit.

The shortened 2026 Commonwealth Games in Scotland will not include hockey for the first time since the sport was introduced to the Games in 1998.

Knowles pleads for this not to be long-term, or the sport risks losing an avenue to capture the next generation.

It is a competition that helped create his legacy, having won gold four times.

But he says he would not have made it to Hall of Fame status if not for the people who drove him to greater heights – his parents, his wife Kelly, and his coaches Ric Charlesworth and Colin Batch, who he “desperately needed”.

“These types of rewards that you get when your career is finished are defined by small moments 20-something years ago,” Knowles says.

“My parents were sport fanatics, and I honestly believe those early days between 13 and 17 really shaped me and my ability to be really self-motivated to drive my own training.

“That certainly shaped me as a young country kid looking up to people and being inspired.”