Robin Dixon, 3rd Baron Glentoran

Thomas Robin Valerian Dixon, 3rd Baron Glentoran CBE (born April 21, 1935 in London ; called Robin Dixon ) is a British politician ( Conservative Party ) and former bobsleigh driver and Olympic champion . As a brakeman, he formed one of the most successful two-man bobsleigh teams of the 1960s together with his pilot Anthony Nash . Later he was a manager of a building materials company. From 1995 to 2018 he was a member of the House of Lords .

Athletic career

Dixon received his education from Eton College and the University of Grenoble . In 1961 he was looking for a replacement for his pilot Henry Taylor , who had an accident in a car race, and came across Nash. Her first success was third place at the 1963 World Cup in Igls . At the Olympic Winter Games in 1964 , the career highlight followed on the same track with winning the gold medal. In the third run a bolt broke off her bobsleigh, so that a start in the decisive fourth run would not have been possible. But the Italian Eugenio Monti , one of their toughest competitors, provided a bolt from his own bob.

At the 1965 World Championships in St. Moritz , Dixon and Nash were again the fastest. They finished the 1966 World Cup in Cortina d'Ampezzo in third place. At the end of his career, he finished fifth at the 1968 Winter Olympics on the Alpe d'Huez track .

One of the curves of the Olympia Bobrun St. Moritz – Celerina is named after Nash and Dixon, the Nash-Dixon Corner .

Profession and Politics

Dixon served in the Grenadier Guards from 1954 and rose to the rank of major . In 1966 he left the army to work for Kodak in public relations . In 1971 he moved to the Northern Irish brick company Redland Tile and Brick Ltd. As a manager, he built it up into a major subsidiary of the Redland building materials group . Dixon was the jury chairman of the 1976 Winter Olympics and has been President of the British Bobsleigh Federation since 1987.

After his father's death in 1995, Dixon inherited the title of Baron Glentoran and the associated seat in the House of Lords . For the conservative shadow government he was "shadow minister" of his party in several areas: Northern Ireland (since 1999), industry (2004-2005), sport (2005-2006), organization of the 2012 Summer Olympics (since 2007) and Wales (since 2007) . After the House of Lords Act 1999 came into force and the associated reform of the House of Lords , he was one of 92 remaining hereditary peers, i.e. a member who, as before, exercises his mandate on the basis of his inheritance claim, but is elected by the other hereditary peers. He gave up his mandate on June 1, 2018.

family

Dixon lives near Ballyclare in Northern Ireland. His grandfather Herbert Dixon was Minister of Agriculture from 1941 to 1943, his father Daniel Dixon Minister of Commerce from 1953 to 1961. Daughter-in-law Karen Straker was a successful eventing rider ; she won a silver medal at both the 1988 Olympic Games and the 1990 World Cup, and was European champion in 1991 (both in the team standings).

Web links

• Robin Dixon, 3rd Baron Glentoran in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jon Culley: Where are they now ?: Dixon and Nash. The Independent , February 8, 1994, accessed April 21, 2020 . 
2. ↑ Volker Kluge : Olympic Winter Games. The Chronicle . Sportverlag, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-328-00831-4 , p. 358 .
3. ↑ Olympic Bob Run. bobmuseum.ch, accessed on April 21, 2020 . 
4. ↑ Lord Glentoran. In: MPs and Lords. UK Parliament , accessed April 21, 2020 . 

predecessor	Office	successor
Daniel Dixon	Baron Glentoran 1995–	current owner of the title