Mark Stockwell

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Mark Stockwell
Personal information
Full nameMark William Stockwell
National teamAustralia
Born (1963-07-05) 5 July 1963 (age 60)
Brisbane, Queensland
Height1.96 m (6 ft 5 in)
Weight88 kg (194 lb)
Sport
SportSwimming
StrokesFreestyle
College teamUniversity of Florida
Medal record
Men's swimming
Representing Australia
Olympic Games
Silver medal – second place 1984 Los Angeles
100 m freestyle
Silver medal – second place 1984 Los Angeles 4×100 m freestyle
Bronze medal – third place 1984 Los Angeles 4×100 m medley
Pan Pacific Championships
Bronze medal – third place 1985 Tokyo 50 m freestyle
Commonwealth Games
Gold medal – first place
1986 Edinburgh
4×100 m freestyle

Mark William Stockwell (born 5 July 1963) is an Australian former competition swimmer and three-time Olympic medallist. Stockwell is a Queensland native who specialised in freestyle sprint events, and had a successful international swimming career during the mid-1980s including the Olympics, Pan Pacific Championships, and Commonwealth Games. Following his retirement from competitive swimming, he has become a successful business executive and has been active in the administration of national sports organisations in Australia.

Early years and education

Stockwell was born and raised in

Brisbane, Queensland,[1] the son of Bill and Necia Stockwell.[2] He is a 1980 graduate of St Laurence's College, a Roman Catholic boys' high school in Brisbane.[1] Stockwell was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder from 1982 to 1984, and again in 1987.[3] He undertook commerce and engineering studies at the University of Queensland, and economics coursework at the Australian National University.[3] He also attended the University of Florida in the United States.[4]

Swimming career

Stockwell won three medals at the

Australian Olympic Federation lodged an official protest, but it was denied.[7][9]

Stockwell, along with teammates Greg Fasala, Neil Brooks, and Michael Delany, won another silver medal in the men's 4×100-metre freestyle relay, finishing in 3:19.68 – just 0.63 of a second behind the Americans' new world record of 3:19.05.[11] He also teamed up with Mark Kerry (backstroke), Peter Evans (breaststroke), and Glenn Buchanan (butterfly), swimming the freestyle anchor leg to win the bronze medal in the 4×100-metre medley relay (3:43.25) behind the Americans (3:39.30) and Canadians (3:43.25).[12] He and his freestyle relay teammates were dubbed the "Mean Machine" by the Australian media.[13] Stockwell was the only Australian athlete to win three Olympic medals in 1984.[14]

After the Olympics, Stockwell attended the

All-American honours in each of the three events.[15] While attending the university he dated his future wife, fellow Gators swimmer Tracy Caulkins, whom he had met in the warm-up pool at the 1984 Olympics.[14]

He followed his Olympic performance with a bronze medal for his third-place finish in the 50-metre freestyle (23.44), and a fourth in the 100-metre freestyle (51.64) at the 1985 Pan Pacific Championships in Tokyo.[16] By the time the 1986 Commonwealth Games were held in Edinburgh, Stockwell had fallen back from his Olympic times in Los Angeles. He claimed a gold medal with his Australian teammates Fasala, Matthew Renshaw, and Neil Brooks in the 4×100-metre relay (3:21.58), and finished seventh in the 100-metre freestyle (51.61).[17] He retired from competitive swimming in 1986.[18] In December 1989, The Age newspaper recognised Stockwell as one of the three best Australian swimmers of the 1980s.[19]

Life after swimming

Stockwell married American swimmer Tracy Caulkins, a three-time Olympic gold medallist, in 1991 in her hometown of Nashville, Tennessee.[20] The couple live in Brisbane with their five children.[21] He received an Australian Sports Medal for his swimming achievements in 2000,[22] and was inducted into the Queensland Sport Hall of Fame in 2009.[13]

Stockwell is the managing director of the family-owned and Queensland-based property development, investment, and management firm, W. A. Stockwell Pty Ltd. He and his brother-in-law Mike Kelso are co-owners of the company that was established as a construction firm by his parents more than sixty years prior. The firm has had successful development ventures in residential, leisure, retail, commercial, and industrial property, and has undertaken a phased AU$350 million residential development in Brisbane's West End. He and his family members were included among the 14 new entrants on the 2014 "Rich List," with a combined estimated net worth of AU$101 million.[2]

Stockwell serves on the board of directors of the Australian Sports Commission, and is the deputy chairman of the board.[3] He is also the chairman of the Australian Sports Foundation, a non-profit company that raises money for Australian sport projects.[23] He previously served as the chairman of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Organising Committee, having led the committee through its successful application process, but was sacked by Campbell Newman.[2] He is the chairman of Trade and Investment Queensland, the Queensland state government's foreign investment and export program, and a former national boardmember and Queensland division past president of the Property Council of Australia.[3]

Stockwell is the past chairman and a trustee of the St Laurence's Old Boys' Foundation, which funds need-based scholarships for boys whose families cannot otherwise afford the tuition and fees at his alma mater, St Laurence's College.[23] He is a Trustee of the Stockwell Foundation, a charitable organisation established by him and his wife to benefit at-risk children.[23]

Stockwell ran in the election for the presidency of the Australian Olympic Committee, in the race to succeed John Coates in April 2022, but lost to Ian Chesterman.[24]

Political views

Stockwell is a supporter of the

centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. During the 2019 Australian federal election campaign, Stockwell made a donation of $1,200 AUD to the Liberal National Party of Queensland (LNP).[25]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "TIQ Board announced," Export Council of Australia (22 October 2013). Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  2. ^ a b c Daryl Passmore, "Queensland's Top 150 Rich List: Former Olympic swimmer Mark Stockwell has a winning approach," The Courier Mail (16 September 2014). Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  3. ^ a b c d Australian Institute of Sport, The Board Archived 25 February 2017 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  4. ^ Mike Bianchi, "UF swimmer anxious to test NCAA waters," The Gainesville Sun, p. 1B (14 January 1985). Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  5. ^ Sports-Reference.com, Olympic Sports, Athletes, Mark Stockwell. Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  6. ^ a b Sports-Reference.com, Olympic Sports, Swimming at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games, Men's 100 metres Freestyle Final. Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  7. ^ a b Frank Litsky, "5 More Golds Continue American Dominance," The New York Times (1 August 1984). Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  8. ^ a b Rick Feneley, "From the pool into deep water," Sydney Morning Herald (27 July 2013). Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  9. ^ a b Jeff Commings, "Whose Start Drew Controversy And Eventual Gold At the 1984 Olympics?," Swimming World Magazine (31 July 2014). Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  10. ^ John Lohn, Historical Dictionary of Competitive Swimming, Scarecrow Press, Inc., Lanham, Maryland, p. 45 (2010). Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  11. ^ Sports-Reference.com, Olympic Sports, Swimming at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games, Men's 4 x 100 metres Freestyle Relay Final. Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  12. ^ Sports-Reference.com, Olympic Sports, Swimming at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games, Men's 4 x 100 metres Medley Relay Final. Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  13. ^ a b QSport.org, Queensland Sport Hall of Fame, Mr Mark Stockwell. Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  14. ^ a b Australian Olympic Committee, Mark Stockwell Athlete Biography. Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  15. ^ a b Florida Swimming & Diving 2014–15 Media Supplement Archived 18 February 2015 at the Wayback Machine, University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, pp. 79, 83, 87, 102 (2014). Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  16. ^ GBRAthletics.com, Pan Pacific Swimming Championships. Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  17. ^ Commonwealth Games Federation, Athletes, Mark William Stockwell[permanent dead link]. Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  18. ^ Mark Ludlow, "Going for gold after the game is over," The Age (15 January 2015). Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  19. ^ "The top 5 sports stars of the '80s," The Age, p. 30 (11 December 1989). Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  20. ^ Jill Lieber, "Love Games: Athletes find rewards better than gold," USA Today (26 August 2004). Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  21. ^ Sam Hovland, "Caulkins still holding down records: Former Florida swimmer held five world, 63 American marks," NCAA.com (26 March 2012). Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  22. ^ It's An Honour, Stockwell, Mark William. Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  23. ^ a b c Australian Sports Foundation, Our Board. Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  24. ^ "Chesterman succeeds Coates as President of Australian Olympic Committee".
  25. ^ https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-01/donations-australia-federal-politics-foreign/10768226

Bibliography

  • Andrews, Malcolm, Australia at the Olympic Games, Australian Broadcasting Corporation Books, Sydney, New South Wales, p. 409 (2000). .

External links