Mervyn Wood

Mervyn Wood, about 1952 in One

Mervyn Thomas ("Merv") Wood , LVO , MBE (born April 30, 1917 in Kensington , Sydney , New South Wales , † August 19, 2006 in Sydney) was an Australian rower . He rowed for more than twenty years, competed in four Olympic Games and won three Olympic medals in singles and doubles . Wood worked as a police officer. He rose to the commandant ( commissioner ) of the police of the state of New South Wales, but had to resign over corruption allegations .

biography

Mervyn Wood was the youngest of four children born to Thomas Wood, who emigrated to Australia and joined the police force in 1905. He grew up in the southeastern suburb of Randwick and graduated from Sydney Boys High School . Wood represented his school in rugby union , swimming and most successfully in rowing. After high school, he became a police cadet and joined the New South Wales Police Rowing Club .

The Australian Olympic Committee nominated the police team as a representative at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin . Wood's eighth team was eliminated in the repechage . After his return from Germany he was promoted to constable . Since most of his eight colleagues had resigned, he began to row with the one . Wood was a member of the crime investigation department and enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force in 1944 to serve as navigator.

After the end of World War II Wood won the championships of Australia and New South Wales in the years 1946 to 1948. This enabled him to participate in the 1948 Summer Olympics in London . He left before the rest of the rowers and won the Henley Royal Regatta singles competition . In the Olympic final race he won with a lead of almost 14 seconds. Wood was named Australia's Sportsman of the Year and subsequently won the Australian Championships seven times in a row. At the British Empire Games in Auckland in 1950 he won in singles, together with Murray Riley also in doubles.

At the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki , Wood was the flag bearer during the opening ceremony. On the way to Finland he had made a detour to England and repeated his success at the Henley Royal Regatta. In the Olympic competition he was considered a favorite, but lost to the Russian Yuri Tjukalow . At the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver in 1954 , Wood rowed in a double scull and a four with no helmsman . Although the final races only took place 45 minutes apart, he won both times.

In 1956 Wood lost his national singles title to Stuart MacKenzie . He was not nominated for this race at the 1956 Summer Olympics , but together with Murray Riley for the double scull. After being the flag bearer for the second time during the opening ceremony (he is the only Australian to have received this honor), he won the bronze medal with the double scull. The last time Wood appeared as a rower was at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff in 1958 , where he finished second with Stuart MacKenzie at the age of 41 in the double scull.

Wood then focused on his professional career in the New South Wales Police Department. He was promoted several times and was finally appointed commander in 1977. His rowing partner, Riley, had also been a policeman, but had left the police and built an international drug smuggling ring. Wood's connection to Riley, the resulting controversy and numerous other corruption cases in the police force forced him to resign in 1979. In 1989 he was charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice, but the charges were dropped two years later due to the statute of limitations.

successes

Olympic games:

• 1936: eliminated with eighth in the hope race
• 1948: Olympic champion with the one
• 1952: Silver medal with the one
• 1956: Bronze medal with the double scull

Empire / Commonwealth Games:

• 1950: Gold medal with the one and the double scull
• 1954: Gold medal with the four without a helmsman and the double scull
• 1958: Silver medal with the double scull

Henley Royal Regatta:

• Winner in 1948 and 1952 with the one

literature

• Volker Kluge : Summer Olympic Games. The Chronicle II. London 1948 - Tokyo 1964. Sportverlag Berlin, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-328-00740-7 .

Web links

• Short biography - Australian Olympic Committee
• Obituary in the New York Times
• History of Australian Rowing
• Mervyn Wood in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Investigation report on corruption in the police force (PDF; 281 kB) - Parliament of New South Wales, December 2002