Stuart Mackenzie (5 April 1936 - 20 October 2020) was an Australian rower. He was an Australian champion and Olympic medalist, who also competed for Great Britain at the 1962 World Championships.

Club and state rowing

Mackenzie was educated at The King's School in Sydney where he took up rowing. He matriculated in 1954. His senior club rowing was from the

Sydney Rowing Club Sydney Rowing Club is the oldest rowing club in New South Wales, Australia formed in 1870. It has occupied its current site on Port Jackson's Parramatta River at Abbotsford, New South Wales, Abbotsford Point since 1874. The club has a focus on its ...

International representative rowing

Mackenzie won a silver medal in single sculls at the

1956 Summer Olympics The 1956 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVI Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, from 22 November to 8 December 1956, with the exception of the equestrian events, wh ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a me ...

. He was reputed to have miscounted the distance, due to not realising the spacing of the buoys changed from 100 m to 50 m in the last 250 m of the race, and so stopped temporarily while still 100 metres from the finish. Mackenzie visited South Africa in 1958, and rowed on the Vaal River at Billabong, near Vereeniging. He took part in the SA Championships and won the double sculls event with his trainee, John Eden. At the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games he won a gold medal in single sculls and also set a Commonwealth Games record (7:20.1 mins), and he received a silver medal in double sculls with

Mervyn Wood Mervyn Thomas Wood, (30 April 1917 – 19 August 2006) was an Australian rower and police officer. He was an eight-time Australian national sculling champion, four-time Olympian and three-time Olympic medalist. He later rose to become the Comm ...

. He won the

Diamond Challenge Sculls The Diamond Challenge Sculls is a rowing event for men's single sculls at the annual Henley Royal Regatta on the River Thames at Henley-on-Thames in England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land border ...

Henley Royal Regatta Henley Royal Regatta (or Henley Regatta, its original name pre-dating Royal patronage) is a rowing event held annually on the River Thames by the town of Henley-on-Thames, England. It was established on 26 March 1839. It differs from the thr ...

six times, consecutively, from 1957 to 1962, and won the

Silver Goblets The Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup is a rowing event for men's coxless pairs at the annual Henley Royal Regatta on the River Thames at Henley-on-Thames in England. It is open to male crews from all eligible rowing clubs. Two clubs may ...

partnering Christopher Davidge in 1963, and the Double Sculls, also with Davidge, in 1959. He was also noted for his gamesmanship, including going out for practice sessions wearing a bowler hat. Mackenzie took part in an event of the Henley Royal Regatta where he was way ahead of all other rowers when he stopped rowing and tried to adjust his cap. However, the reason was to give time to his opponents to catch up with him as it happened. Then he started rowing again and he easily managed to get away, be faster and end first. Although favoured to win the gold medal at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, he fell ill before the race and had to withdraw. After refusing to return to Australia from Europe for trials for the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games to be held in Perth, Mackenzie rowed for Great Britain at the 1st World Rowing Championships in Lucerne, finishing second to his great rival Vyacheslav Ivanov. Mackenzie was inducted into the

Sport Australia Hall of Fame The Sport Australia Hall of Fame was established on 10 December 1985 to recognise the achievements of Australian sportsmen and sportswomen. The inaugural induction included 120 members with Sir Don Bradman as the first inductee and Dawn Fraser t ...

in 1985.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mackenzie, Stuart 1937 births 2020 deaths Australian male rowers Rowers at the 1956 Summer Olympics Olympic rowers for Australia Medalists at the 1956 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in rowing Olympic silver medalists for Australia Rowers at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Australia Commonwealth Games silver medallists for Australia Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductees Commonwealth Games medallists in rowing World Rowing Championships medalists for Great Britain European Rowing Championships medalists 20th-century Australian people 21st-century Australian people Medallists at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Place of birth missing