Mariah Williams is a member of the Australian women’s hockey team the Hockeyroos, a dual Olympian (Rio 2016 & Tokyo 2020) and She won a silver medal at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Born in Parkes in the central west region of New South Wales, Mariah was just four years old when she first picked up a hockey stick. A visit from former Kookaburra and three-time Olympian, Stephen Davies (also from Parkes), to Mariah’s primary school inspired her to think she too could one day play Hockey for Australia. Moving to Newcastle at 14 Mariah joined Hunter Sports High and from there went on to represent her state and was offered a scholarship to the NSW Institute of Sport.
2013 was a milestone year for the then 17-year-old who debuted for both the Australian junior team, The Jillaroos, and the Hockeyroos and was invited to make the move to Perth to join the national squad. However, Mariah decided to postpone the move and stay in Newcastle to finish Year 12.
Born without a ligament in her knee, Mariah overcame multiple surgeries to become a regular fixture in the Hockeyroos team, winning gold at the 2015 Oceania Cup and also captaining the Jillaroos to a bronze medal at the Junior World Cup in Santiago, Chile. In 2016 the Hockeyroos attacker was selected to represent Australia at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, where the team was beaten by New Zealand in the quarter-finals.
An ongoing injury to her adductor in 2017 saw her sidelined for close to two years. Returning to the team in 2019 Mariah was part of the Hockeyroos team that won silver in the inaugural FIH Pro League, and the NSW Pride Women’s team for the inaugural Hockey One league.
After failing to qualify directly for the Tokyo Olympics, the Hockeyroos won their sudden death qualifying series against Russia to secure their spot at the Games and Mariah was named on the Australian team in June 2021.
Mariah is a proud Wiradjuri woman and an athlete ambassador for the AIS 2021 Share a Yarn initiative.