LORETTA HARROP excelled in three sports by winning an Olympic silver medal in the triathlon.
But her daughter is the world No1 junior in a completely different one.
Brisbane-born Harrop had a swimming background but added the cycling and running elements on the suggestion of her brother Luke.
The pair raced internationally and she booked her place at the home Olympics in 2000, finishing fifth.
But before the next Games, tragedy struck in 2002 when Luke was killed in a hit-and-run incident while out on a training bike ride.
Harrop – who also lost her mum to cancer when she was 18 – used the memory of her late sibling to inspire her to go even better at Athens 2004.
And she did exactly that, using her strong swim to build a lead in the triathlon race – but was overtaken in the final few hundred metres of the 10km run by Kate Allen.
Harrop had a house at her old school named after her but she is not the only sporting star in her family.
She is married to Brad Jones, a former Aussie Rules talent who shone in Queensland and had trials for the Brisbane Bears did not make it into a professional AFL career.
And both of their children are tennis prodigies.
Son Hayden was born in August 2006 and reached the world’s top ten in the junior rankings, playing in the boys’ Wimbledon and reaching the US Open boys’ doubles semis.
But it is his younger sister Emerson Jones who is taking the tennis world by storm.
The Gold Coast sensation – two years younger than Hayden – reached the finals of the Australian Open and Wimbledon junior events in 2024, only turning 16 during her time in South-West London.
Even though she lost both in straight sets to Renata Jamrichova, Jones reached the junior world No1 ranking last year and won her maiden ITF Circuit title at the NSW Open in her homeland in October.
In doing so, she became the first Aussie to be junior world No1 since Jelena Dokic in 1998.
Tennis stars following in parents’ footsteps
TALK about pressure…
These rising stars are all making their way in tennis.
But they have got something in common – they’ve got a famous parent who also made their name in the sport.
So who are the players hoping to follow in the footsteps of their tennis mums and dads?
Teenager Jones has a strong all-court game – seeing her dubbed the “new Ash Barty” – and demonstrated that by shocking world No37 Xinyu Wang in Adelaide in January to secure her first WTA Tour and break into the top 300 in the rankings.
It also ensured she was handed a wildcard for the Australian Open women’s singles, her main-draw senior Grand Slam debut.
Although the home hero was crushed 6-1 6-1 by former Wimbledon champ and No6 seed Elena Rybakina in a mismatch, the experience aged just 16 will have been invaluable.
And Australian tennis fans are confident they will be celebrating plenty of Major wins over the years.
Read the full article here
