Benny Pike has represented Australia in boxing in Olympic and Commonwealth Games and World Championships.
Since 1984 he has been an entertaining and informed commentator at every Olympic and Commonwealth Games for ABC radio.
He is one of the Sunshine Coast’s most high-profile media personalities, particularly where the development of sport on the Sunshine Coast is concerned.
Benny has been for many years a passionate advocate for the development of sport on the Sunshine Coast. No one has done more for sport than he has. He never avoids controversy or criticism if he believes that the eventual outcome will benefit sport. He is widely admired on the Coast by people involved in sport, young and old alike.
Perhaps one of his most remarkable achievements across two decades is to have built up the ‘Sport Star of the Year Awards Ceremony’, not simply because of the Ceremony, but because of what that Ceremony symbolises.
That ceremony reflects Benny’s multi-faceted contributions to sport and his pivotal role, the need for a regional approach, the level of support for talented youth, the way in which there have been carefully crafted criteria to evaluate achievements in different sports, in his performance and direct support for international standard regional sports facilities and his clear understanding of how sports can be advanced through research and education.
He has led a movement that has taken sport from its small-scale, unorganised beginnings on the Coast, for it to become one of the region’s major leisure and business activities.