Six (female) Olympians, a political prisoner, and a Brisbane-born movie star were the most Googled public figures this year. The number one spot, however, is held by an octogenarian Australian entrepreneur.
The Paris Olympics captivated the nation earlier this year, and Australians took their intrigue of our tenacious athletes from the television screen to the keyboard. Positions seven through 10 of Google’s 2024 Top 10 most searched Aussie public figures were taken out by highly accomplished athletes.
10. Ariarne Titmus
Rounding out the top 10 is Forbes Australia’s 30 Under 30 alumni and swimming golden girl Ariarne Titmus. Known as the ‘Terminator’ Titmus holds world records in the 200m and 400m freestyle events.
Tasmanian-born Titmus moved to Queensland in 2015 to pursue better training opportunities and made her Olympics debut in 2020 winning two gold, one silver, and one bronze medal. In the 2024 Paris Olympics, Titmus won gold in the women’s 400m freestyle and the freestyle relay, and silver in the 200m freestyle.
9. Arisa Trew
Not only is Arisa Trew the first female Australian skateboarder to win a medal at the Olympics, she is also the youngest Australian Olympian gold medalist ever.
At just 14, Trew took gold home from Paris in the women’s park skateboarding competition. The Cairns-born athlete took up skateboarding at the age of eight as a ‘winter-alternative to surfing.’
8. Saya Sakakibara
Gold Coast-born 25-year-old Sakakibara is a six-time national BMX champion. She made her debut at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 and returned in 2024 to take the gold in Paris.
7. Jess Fox
Another 30 Under 30 superstar, canoeist Jess Fox won two gold medals in Paris this year. Fox made her Olympic debut in the 2012 London Games and backed it up with another gold medal in Tokyo in 2020.
The French-born, Australian-raised athlete is the daughter of world champion canoeists Richard Fox and Myriam Fox-Jerusalemi. Her sister Noemie won gold in Paris in the women’s slalom kayak cross.
The Fox sisters were inducted into the Sports Australia Hall of Fame in November this year and won the Don award.
6. Jacob Elordi
Forbes Australia 30 Under 30 music and arts awardee Jacob Elordi is the sixth most googled Aussie this year.
The Brisbane-born 27-year-old shot to international stardom in Netflix’s 2018 film The Kissing Booth. He followed it up by starring in the cult teen drama series Euphoria in 2019. Elordi moved up to the big screen playing Elvis Presley in the 2023 film Priscilla and earned a BAFTA nomination for his co-starring role in Margot Robbie-produced film Saltburn.
5. Bruce Lehrmann
The Australian Federal Court ruled in April this year that on the balance of probabilities, Bruce Lehrmann raped Brittany Higgins in Parliament House in 2019, and could not sue for defamation. Lehrmann has denied the allegations of rape and appealed the outcome of the defamation case.
Allegations of juror misconduct derailed the 2022 criminal trial against Lehrmann in the ACT Supreme Court. The appeal in the defamation case is scheduled to take place in August 2025.
4. Sam Kerr
Matilda Sam Kerr is Australia’s soccer captain and all-time top scorer. She has also been a key player at Chelsea football club since 2020, helping them win the WSL title five times in a row. The 31-year-old striker ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and missed most of the 2024 season. Kerr is expected to return to the soccer pitch next year.
Kerr and her American partner soccer star Kristie Mewis announced in November they are expecting a baby in 2025.
3. Raygun
Rachael “Raygun” Gunn, is an Australian breakdancer who became the centre of a viral storm following her Olympic debut in Paris. Raygun described the fallout from her routine as ‘unexpected and devastating.’
2. Julian Assange
Julian Assange arrived in Australia in June after a US judge in Saipan accepted his guilty plea for one count of espionage and sentenced him to time served. Stella Assange – a lawyer and Assange’s wife – reunited with her husband in Canberra.
Prior to boarding the plane in London en route to Saipan, Assange spent 1,901 days in Belmarsh Prison in the UK. He was in asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy from 2012 to 2019.
1. John Singleton
‘Singo’ as he is known co-founded the ad agency SPASM in 1968. He sold it to a US firm five years later and retired from the ad-game for almost a decade. By the mid-80s, the colourful personality was back in business, opening his eponymous shop, John Single Advertising. The company went public on the ASX in 1995.
These days, Singleton spends much of his time at his thoroughbred ranch on the NSW Central Coast. In April this year, the father of eight children suffered immense personal loss when his 25-year-old daughter Dawn was tragically killed in the April 2024 knife attack at Westfield Bondi Junction.
Look back on the week that was with hand-picked articles from Australia and around the world. Sign up to the Forbes Australia newsletter here or become a member here.
