Becoming the first Tasmanian to win an individual Olympic gold medal and then its first multiple Olympic champion saw Ariarne Titmus go back-to-back with the state's athlete of the year award.

With the award not presented last year due to COVID, the 21-year-old retained the title she won in 2019.

Parents Steve and Robyn collected the award from Premier Peter Gutwein at a cocktail function in Hobart with Titmus saying she remained a proud Tasmanian, despite moving from Launceston to Brisbane in 2015 to pursue her sporting dreams.

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The freestyle specialist took Tasmanian swimming, and indeed sport in general, into unchartered waters in 2021, claiming four medals at the Tokyo Olympics with golds in the 200 and 400m, silver in the 800m and bronze in the 4x200m relay.

She also broke the Olympic record for the 200m, along with the Australian Commonwealth records in both the 400m and 800m.

Titmus fought off stiff competition to claim the title.

Fellow finalists Eddie Ockenden and Josh Beltz, both of Hobart, had helped the Kookaburras to a silver medal in Tokyo, coming within a shootout of a second Olympic hockey title.

Launceston cyclist Richie Porte achieved a long-term goal of winning the Criterium du Dauphine before competing at his second Olympic Games, King Island's Stewart McSweyn set a string of Australian athletics records before finishing seventh in the 1500m final in Tokyo while Forth's Deon Kenzie won a bronze medal over the same distance at the Paralympic Games.

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The function also acknowledged four retired Tasmanian Olympians with Tim Deavin, Matthew Goss, Kerry Hore and Sid Taberlay inducted into the Tasmanian Sporting Hall of Fame.

Deavin, 37, had a seven-year international career with the Kookaburras and attended Olympic Games in London and Rio while Goss, 35, also of Launceston, enjoyed a 12-year international cycling career which yielded a world title on the track, selection for the 2012 Olympics plus 17 major wins including the Milan-San Remo classic.

The first Tasmanian-born athlete and only female Australian rower to attend four Olympic Games, Hore, 40, of Hobart, won a bronze medal in 2004 and a world title a year earlier.

Taberlay, 41, of Blackmans Bay, is a five-time national champion, world championship and Oceania medallist, Athens Olympian and the first mountain biker among the hall of fame's 139 members.

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