Ormond Olympians

Ormond’s first known Olympian was also one of its earliest Rhodes Scholars, Charles Littlejohn (1907). Whilst on his scholarship at Oxford, Littlejohn and his college crew competed at the Olympics for Great Britain, winning a silver medal. He went on to earn a Military Cross in World War I.

At the London Games, Charles Green (1943) competed in the 110m hurdles. A scholar and actor as well as an athlete, he had appeared in the Ormond play. He later completed his PhD and became a distinguished pathologist.

Cedric Sloane (1935) competed in the 18km cross-country skiing event at the Winter Olympics in Oslo. Competing against northern hemisphere athletes with access to much more extensive and developed ski fields, he came 75th out of 80.

At the Melbourne Olympics, the Vice-Captain of the Australian athletics team was Ormondian Don Macmillan (1948), four-time Australian one-mile champion and Commonwealth Games medallist.

The bronze-medal winning Australian men’s rowing VIII at the Melbourne Olympics included two Ormondians: Jim Howden (1953) and Michael Aikman (1952). Jim Howden’s games embodied the Olympic spirit – read his story here.

Ken O’Connor (1955) umpired field hockey at the LA Olympics in front of a crowd familiar only with the ice version of the game. When he correctly disallowed four goals that would have been legal in ice hockey, the crowd booed and an announcer had to explain the game’s rules. O’Connor went to six Olympics as a statistician, umpire, scoreboard operator and spectator.

After taking up rowing in her first year at Ormond, Jacqui Marshall (1975) went to the world championships twice. When her long-time rowing partner pulled out of selection for the pairs in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, she went in the single scull instead.

Ormond receptionist Jackie Perkins (pictured wearing #18) competed in middle distance events at the Seoul Olympics.

The 1992 Olympics was the first of three for goalkeeper of the Australian men’s hockey team Lachlan Dreher. He came home with a medal from each: silver in 1992 and bronze in 1996 and 2000.

Professor of Sports Medicine Peter Brukner OAM, MBBS, FACSP (1977) went to the 1996 and 2000 Olympics with the athletics teams. A Professor of Sports Medicine, he has been a national team doctor in four sports.

Michael McLean (1974) was paralysed at the age of 25 when an excavation collapsed on him. He began sailing sonar class and became a champion in both disabled and able-bodied events. He won a gold medal at the Sydney 2000 Paralympics. 

At his second Olympics, in Beijing, Olympics Cameron McKenzie-McHarg won a silver medal as part of a silver-medal winning coxless four. He is now the founder and CEO of a performance sportswear brand.

Phoebe Stanley (2004) overcame a heart condition to compete in the London 2012 Olympics as part of the women’s VIII. She was part of a second Australian Olympic crew to include two Ormondians, the first being the men’s VIII in Melbourne in 1956.

Robyn Selby Smith (1999) was crucial to getting her Australian women’s rowing VIII to the London Games, spearheading a public campaign to have the well-qualified Australian women’s VIII sent to London alongside the men’s. Selby-Smith took up rowing in first year at Ormond and within six years was a double world champion.

Ormond Director of Community & Wellbeing Dr Thomas Hammond worked with teams preparing for the later-postponed Tokyo Olympics, following a similar role as lead psychologist for the 2018 Winter Olympic team.