Pearse, who turned 19-year-old last month, was the toast of the Campaspe community last week when he touched the wall first in the 5.45am (AEST) final of his pet event, the 100-metre butterfly — for S10 athletes.
Rochester Sports Museum’s Bob Knight said he had been negotiating with the family for some time, but Pearse’s hectic schedule since the Paralympics in Japan had not allowed the exhibition to be fully planned.
“His mother said she is going to bring him in with some memorabilia, but the opportunity never arose. We will be sure to make it happen now,” Mr Knight said.
The Commonwealth Games para swimming gold medal comes hot on the heels of Pearse’s two silver medals at the World Para Swimming Championships that were in Madeira, Portugal in June.
Pearse was last year awarded a Sport Australia Hall of Fame Scholarship, having first won his way onto the national para swimming team in 2019.
He won a bronze at the 2019 world swimming titles in London before claiming a bronze medal at the 2021 Tokyo Paralympics, again in the 100-metre butterfly.
Mr Knight said he knew the Pearse family well and it would be a fitting way to recognise the achievements of the teenager who lost his right foot after a collision with a ride-on lawnmower.
Pearse captured the hearts of the nation with his emotional pool-side interviews during the Tokyo games and with the stories of his uniquie farm-inspired training program.
Pearse prepared by swimming in the murky waters of the family dam and made national headlines when he was included in the team.
Mr Knight said he would be following in the footsteps of the likes of netball legend Sharelle McMahon and equestrian champion Simone Pearce in being recognised by the sports museum.
“I know Tina (Pearse’s mother) well and she has some stuff from both games that he is going to loan to us,” Mr Knight said.
“That will form the base of the display and we will be able to highlight his achievements when we get it.
“He will have the cabinet all to himself.”
Mr Knight’s wife, Marg, worked with Pearse’s grandmother (Dot) as a nurse.
George and Dot Pearse still live at Bamawm.
“My dad used to go out to the Pearse’s old farm and pick up cream. It is a small little world,” Mr Knight said.
The sports museum committee member has never actually met Col Pearse, but said he had known of him from an early age.
“Dot (Pearse) rang Marg to tell her about the accident,” he said, speaking of when the two-year-old had his foot amputated following the accident.
Mr Knight also has a relationship with Robyn Pearce, the mother of Tokyo Olympic equestrian star Simone.
Pearce is now based in Europe, but her family remains in the region.
“Simone was friends with my daughter, Bronwyn (now Jackson),” Mr Knight said.
Mr Knight said it would be fitting to salute the region’s entire games community, something the museum had not done before.
It could also include Sharelle McMahon, a two-time Commonwealth Games Gold Medallist who also grew up at Bamawm.
“We have featured Sharelle previously and she now has a semi permanent display,” Mr Knight said.
“But, at the moment, we have nothing on display for the Commonwealth and Olympic Games. We are running out of room.”
The museum is about to launch its new Opperman exhibition and will also be featuring a display on 200-game North Melbourne football star Shaun Atley.
∎ Australia registered its 1000th gold medal at the games when the Australian Diamond (netball) won the Gold medal play-off with Jamaica.
The Birmingham Games represented the largest ever representation of para athletes at the Commonwealth Games.
Thirty eight medals were awarded across seven sports in Para-sport events at the games.
The 300 athletes represented an increase of 45 per cent compared to the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games.
With one day of competition remaining in the 2022 games the Australian medal tally was 66 Gold, 54 Silver and 53 Bronze — 173 medals and seven more than host country England.
Canada was third on the tally with 90 medals (25 Gold), ahead of New Zealand (19 Gold).
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