Jamie Howell, a 17-year-old from Redland Bay, has been named Deaf Sports Australia’s Female Athlete of the Year.
The announcement was made at the closing ceremony of the Australian Deaf Games in Adelaide last month.
The annual awards celebrate the achievements of deaf and hard of hearing athletes.
Jamie won three medals in the 2015 Asia Pacific Deaf Games in Taipei in October.
She won gold in the long jump event, silver in 100m and bronze in the 200m race.
Jamie said she fell in love with athletics in 2008 when she participated in the Pacific School Games and won four gold medals.
She was 10 years old at the time.
“I kept it up and it grew from there,” she said.
The teenager, who finished year 12 at Faith Lutheran College last year, was born profoundly deaf and has cochlear implants in both ears.
Jamie recently competed in touch football, as well as athletics, in the Australia Deaf Games.
She came first in 100m and shot put and second in long jump, placing after an athlete from Fiji.
“I broke the open women’s Deaf Australia record in the long jump,” she said.
Jamie will compete in junior and open competitions in the next few months, but her sights are set on the Deaflympics due to be held in Turkey in 2017.
“If I can get through to the finals that will be great and if I get a medal that is a bonus,” she said.
“That is the next big thing and after that I will keep training and see where athletics takes me.”
Jamie will study exercise and nutrition science at the University of Queensland this year and plans to become a dietitian.
