Australian Olympic champion Rick Mitchell, who won silver in the 400-metre at the Moscow Olympics, died on Sunday night from prostate cancer.
Mitchell was the last Australian male runner to win an individual Olympic medal on the track. Men have since won Olympic medals in relays, in walks on the road and jumping medals in the track field, but no male has won an Olympic individual track medal since Mitchell. The 66-year-old was a member of the Athletics Australia Hall of Fame, went to three Olympics and won Commonwealth gold, two silvers and a bronze.Credit:At his first Olympics in Montreal in 1976, a Games distinguished by Australia’s poor results, Mitchell was a national counterpoint, making the 400m final. He won silver at Moscow in 1980 and in Los Angeles in 1984 was unlucky to miss a medal with the 400m relay team.
That time from LA was still one second faster than the time the Australian’s recorded in Athens in 2004 when they won silver.Mitchell was inducted into the Hall of Fame at the annual John Landy Lunch in 2012. He told a lovely story of his silver medal-winning race in 1980 but how forevermore who at the previous Olympics in Montreal in 1976 had won the 400m and 800m double, would mean more to him than any medal he had won.
mickgleeson Thank you Michael for the tribute to my beautiful cousin Richard. Great athlete amazing achievements three Olympics and three Comminwealth games with medals in between. Our hearts are broken.