Since his return to Seven, McAvaney has hosted and called a broad range of the network's sports coverage, including the Melbourne Cup, World Athletics Championships, Motor Racing, the Australian Open Tennis, Australian Masters Golf and all Summer Olympic Games from Barcelona 1992 to Rio 2016, except London 2012 (because Seven did not have the rights to those Games). His extensive history covering Olympic Games has led to the nickname "Mr Olympics". In an interview with the Herald Sun, McAvaney announced informally that he would no longer commentate Men's games at the Australian Open, so he can optimise his health over summer and for other sport events. McAvaney had been calling the Open since 1990 and been chief caller alongside Jim Courier since 2005. 2017 was only the second time he had missed the tournament, attributing that later to his cancer diagnosis. McAvaney was the MC of the Brownlow Medal for over two decades (though at different time periods), between 1990 and 2018. Since 2018, McAvaney hosted Seven's coverage of Test cricket interviewing some of cricket’s most interesting figures in the lunch breaks of the Melbourne & Sydney Tests. In February 2021 McAvaney announced that he was retiring from calling AFL games because of a desire to reduce his workload. Awards McAvaney was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2002 for service to sports broadcasting, and to the community through charitable and sporting organisations. He was also inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in that year. In 2022, he was inducted into the TV Week Logie Hall of Fame becoming the second sports broadcaster to be inducted. Personal life McAvaney's first marriage, to Merry, lasted from 1983 to 1991. He met his second wife Anne Johnson, a television journalist and producer, in 1993 while making the show Seasons. With her, he has two children, Sam and Alexandra. He moved his family from Melbourne back to his home town of Adelaide in 1999. In March 2017 McAvaney revealed he had been diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. References External links 1953 births Australian racecallers Australian rules football commentators Australian television presenters Australian tennis commentators Golf writers and broadcasters Journalists from South Australia Living people Logie Award winners Olympic Games broadcasters People from Adelaide Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductees Sports commentators Swimming commentators Track and field broadcasters