He might be the grandfather of the Australian diving team, but triple Olympic medallist and UQ medical student Robert Newbery plans to go out with a bang in Beijing.
Newbery, 29, will be wearing the green and gold for his third straight Olympic Games, sharing the honour with his wife Chantelle, a gold medallist from Athens.
The pair retired after multiple medals at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, only to be drawn back to the sport last year.
“A year ago Chantelle and I just thought: ‘we’ve got a great opportunity to represent Australia again, we can’t let that go’,” Robert said.
“I can always study and have a job later on and have more kids, but I’ll never be able to do this again.”
After a string of successful meets at home and abroad the Newberys are now training hard at the Australian
Institute of Sport’s diving headquarters at Chandler before jetting off to Beijing on August 4.
Robert will compete in three separate Olympic events – the 3-metre springboard individual and synchronised and the 10-metre platform synchronised – and is focused on making a splash when it counts.
“We’re doing everything we can, we’re not going to march in the opening ceremony because we’re competing early,” Robert said.
“That would’ve been a great experience – I marched in Sydney and I had a fantastic time and to sacrifice that and to sacrifice everything else, you want to be in great shape and do the best you can.”
Robert has deferred his studies until the end of the Games, and is juggling training with work at the Australian Spinal Care Association and looking after his two young sons Jet and Ryder.
“We’ve found ourselves busy and at times, you’re almost at the end of your tether with trying to do it again,” he said.
“But it’s all been so worthwhile and rewarding and just to do it, even if we don’t get the result that we want in Beijing, just having a crack at it is what it’s been all about.”
With the Games just over a week away Robert said the dominant Chinese team were obvious favourites, particularly with their home team advantage.
“I think they are going to be extremely strong and it’ll be tough to beat them, but that’s not to say it’s not going to happen, and if it happens we’d like to be the ones to do it,” he said.
“You just wait and see. You get in there, put your head down, go for it and see where you end up.”
And with promising results so far this season he’s hoping Beijing might prove third time lucky.
“All my (Olympic) medals are bronze, so I’d love to get a silver or gold, I’ve come so close to it. But if I’ve done everything I can do and perform the way I want to perform at the Olympics I’ll be happy with myself.”
Media: Cameron Pegg at UQ Communications (07 3365 2049, c.pegg@uq.edu.au)
