Sally Ninham

Sally Ninham is an Australian academic, published historian and a former national representative rower. As a lightweight rower she was a national champion and won a silver medal at the 1990 World Rowing Championships.

Sally Ninham

Sport
Country	Australia
Sport	Rowing
Club	ANU Boat Club Melbourne University Boat Club
Medal record Women's rowing Representing  Australia World Rowing Championships 1990 Lake Barrington LW4-

Early life and education

Ninham's uncle Roger Ninham, was a dual Olympian rower for Australia. He competed at Rome 1960 and Tokyo 1964.[1] He had won the King's Cup for West Australia in 1960 and the President's Cup (national single sculls championship) in 1961. Her grandfather William Ninham a boat builder, stroked South Australian eights which contested the King's Cup in 1932, 1933 and 1935.[2] As a Perth-based craftsman of rowing shells, he had long associations with the West Australian Rowing Club and the Fremantle Rowing Club.[3]

Ninham studied at the Australian National University and La Trobe University, in Germany at the University of Hamburg and she undertook some studies at the University of California Berkeley. She obtained a BA (Hons) and a PhD.[4]

Career

Club and state rowing

Ninham's senior club rowing was from the Australian National University Boat Club and the Melbourne University Boat Club. She won a New South Wales state championship title in 1989 in a lightweight coxless four.[5]

She contested national titles at the Australian Rowing Championships in the lightweight pair and the lightweight coxless four on a number of occasions. In 1989 in ANU colours she placed second in the pair and in the four.[6] In 1990, racing for MUBC she placed fifth in the pair and fourth in the four.[7]

Ninham's sole state representation for Victoria came in 1990 when she was selected in the bow seat of the lightweight coxless four which contested and won the Victoria Cup at the Interstate Regatta within the Australian Rowing Championships.[8]

International representative rowing

Ninham made her Australian representative debut in 1989 in the lightweight coxless four. They raced at the Lucerne International Regatta to a fourth place [5] and then at the 1989 World Rowing Championships in Bled they again finished fourth.[9] The following year at the 1990 World Rowing Championships in Lake Barrington, Ninham held the three seat in the women's lightweight four which won the silver medal.[10] That same crew also raced that year at the 1990 Canadian Henley Regatta and won the lightweight coxless four title.[5]

Scholar and author

An independent scholar and author affiliated with Melbourne's La Trobe University, her first published work was “A Cohort of Pioneers” a study on Australia's growing intellectual, social, and research cultures since WWII. Her second book “Ten African Cardinals” tracked conversations with ten of the fourteen African Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church.[11]

Personal life

Ninham is married to James Peters, himself a national Australian champion lightweight rower (1981 coxless four) [12] who also coached at the Australian national level.[10] They have five children. Marion Jennifer Peters, William “Billy” Rory Peters, Moira “Nevie” Genevieve Peters, Susan Eleanor Peters and Naomi Maeve Peters [5]

References

1. 1964 Olympics
2. 1933 Kings Cup
3. Bill Ninham Fremantle
4. About Ninham
5. Ninham profile at Guerin Foster
6. 1989 Austn C'ships
7. 1990 Austn C'ships
8. 1990 Interstate Regatta
9. 1989 World C'ships.
10. 1990 World C'ships
11. Ninham works
12. 1981 Austn C'ships

• Sally Ninham at FISA WorldRowing.com