The inspirational athlete accepted a Doctor of Social Science honoris causa in front of over 8,500 RMIT graduating students at Marvel Stadium.
Gallagher boasts a remarkable list of sporting achievements, including as the first Australian woman to win a Winter Paralympic medal and our first athlete to medal at both the Summer and Winter games.
She has famously represented Australia in four different sports – alpine skiing, athletics, track cycling and rowing – a three-time Paralympic medalist, World Champion, two-time Commonwealth Games Champion and eleven World Championship medals to her name. She has been to five Paralympics and is on track to make it number six next year in Paris.
Gallagher acknowledged that while her career is usually judged by the conventional measures of success – the medals, the good and the great times – the reality was that things had not always gone the way she planned.
Her message to the crowd of 50,00 graduating students, friends, family and RMIT staff was to embrace the challenges they would inevitably encounter during their lives.
Jessica Gallagher receives her Honorary Doctorate from RMIT Chancellor Ms Peggy O’Neal AO
