Doctor, athlete, author; Australia

Two times world champion, four times Commonwealth champion – in the sport of athletics, Jana Pittman personifies resilience and determination. When continual injuries hampered her athletic career and could have signalled retirement, she swapped the track for the ice, joining the Australian women’s bobsled team and becoming the first woman to represent Australia in both a Summer (2000, 2004) and Winter (2014) Olympic Games.

Off the track, Jana completed a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery at Western Sydney University in 2019 (graduating with First Class Honours and the university medal) and is now a junior doctor in Women’s Health.

She completed a Masters of Reproductive Medicine at the University of New South Wales in 2020 and has initiated her PhD in Obstetrics (focusing on aspects of uterus transplantation). This busy woman is proud mum to six children: Cornelis; little sisters Emily and Jemima; Charlie; and most recently, twins Quinlan and Willow.

Having experienced her own personal scare with cervical dysplasia, Jana became an ambassador for the Australian Cervical Cancer Foundation. In 2021, Jana was a participant in the gruelling television show SAS Australia on Channel 7. She made it to the last day of the course and was the final female standing among the 18 celebrity recruits, despite having given birth only five and a half months previously.