Born in England, Dick Coombes arrived in Sydney in 1886 and, in 1887, helped form the New South Wales Amateur Athletic Association. He became vice-president of that group in 1893 and then served as president until 1935. He also founded the Sydney Amateur Walkers’ Club, the Sydney Harriers, and the Australian Coursing Union. He was captain of the Sydney Rifle Club and made an immeasurable contribution to Australian sport. Coombes worked as a journalist, contributing articles to the Sydney Referee and also wrote for the Arrow and the Sydney Sunday Times. In 1895 he took a team to Queensland and helped them set up the Queensland Amateur Athletic Association and, in 1896, formed the Amateur Athletic Union of Australasia. He was also one of the founding members of the Australian Olympic Federation. Coombes was co-opted into the IOC in 1905 and served until 1932, although he never attended an IOC Session because of the travel difficulty in getting to Europe in that era. He left the IOC because of health concerns, and his later years were also marked by financial difficulties. His interest in Australian athletics was honored by the Coombes Memorial Prize, and he was known as “the father of Australian athletics.”
Australia