Born Subiaco WA
29 October 1964
Selection in the Western Australian hockey team as a teenager in 1983 set Jacqui Pereira on a path to the highest levels of international sport, culminating in her winning Olympic Games gold medals in 1988 and 1996.
Pereira was introduced to Hockey at the Rossmoyne High School. She subsequently became the first Australian to score 100 goals in international hockey, her 175 matches producing a total of 109 goals for her country.
Pereira won Olympic gold in Seoul in 1988 and was also a member of the team at the Barcelona Games in 1992. She was an exciting striker in Australia’s gold medal winning team in Atlanta in 1996 and this tournament was a fitting end to her outstanding career.
She played in the 1986, 1990 and 1994 World Cup tournaments, winning a gold medal in 1994 as part of the all-conquering Hockeyroos team. She was an automatic selection in the WA State and National League teams between 1983 and her retirement in 1997, during which time WA won eight titles, including seven successive titles between 1985 and 1991.
Although diminutive in stature, Pereira was brave, lightning fast in her attack on the ball and she could conjure a goal from the most unlikely circumstances.
Features of Pereira’s play included her thievish-like ability to gain the ball from opposition defenders and to skilfully deflect goals from team-mates cross passes.
At a time when the Australian women’s team was pre-eminent in world hockey, Pereira was a key player and it was often her goal scoring that paved the way for crucial victories in key tournaments.