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Edda Egger
Eda Egger was born in Irlback, Germany on 11 May 1949 and moved with her family to Australia when she was just eight months old. On their arrival in Australia in 1950 the family settled in Orange, worked hard and became highly valued citizens in the community.
Eda attended Orange Infants School, Orange Rural School and eventually completed her Higher School Certificate at Orange High School. Eda's father, Charlie Sumegi, was an enthusiastic supporter of canoeing, and took his family along to the Canobolas Sailing and Canoeing Club where Eda, her brother John and sister Sue soon became very talented paddlers.
The Canobolas Sailing and Canoeing Club was founded in about 1959 by Joe Runeman, and it was his son, Hank Runeman who was then working with Olympian John Southwood, who took the young Sumegi family under his wing and guided them along the way to numerous State and National titles. John Sumegi was to go on and represent Australia in two Olympics at Montreal in 1976 and was a Silver medallist at Moscow in 1980.
Younger sister Sue also won numerous State titles at various ages, in both singles and doubles, often competing with those well above her age and she was considered unlucky not to have also taken out National Honours.
Eda started serious canoeing at about 15 and within three years she had taken out three successive State and Open titles and numerous State Age titles. In the Australian Championships in 1969, Eda won the prestigious National K1 Open Women's title over 1000m. She then paired with Victorian Kay McPherson to win Australian Open Titles in K2 over 500m, 1000m and 5000m to bring home four Gold Medals from the Nationals.
In 1970, Eda married Peter Egger, also a well-known slalom champion, and the husband and wife team represented Australia at the Classic 25 mile Wild River race down the Arkansas River from Denver, Colorado in June 1970. In January 1972, Peter and Eda moved to Sydney and continued to enjoy success with the Rivers Canoe Club at Tempe on the Cooks River.
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