Douglas John Mudgway (23 August 1924 – 16 April 1988) was a New Zealand

amateur wrestler Amateur wrestling is a variant of wrestling practiced in collegiate, school, or other amateur level competitions. There are two international wrestling styles performed in the Olympic Games: freestyle and Greco-Roman. Both styles are under the ...

. In the

1950 British Empire Games The 1950 British Empire Games was the fourth staging of what is now called the Commonwealth Games. It was held in Auckland, New Zealand between 4 and 11 February 1950, after a 12-year gap from the third edition of the games. The main venue was ...

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

, Mudgway won the gold medal for wrestling in the bantamweight (57 kg) division. It was New Zealand's first wrestling gold medal at the

British Empire Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

. Mudgway started wrestling at an early age and won several New Zealand national titles. He married Margaret Shearman, who later became the first woman executive committee member and later the first female vice-president of the New Zealand Wrestling Association. She also served as the assistant tournament controller at the Christchurch Commonwealth Games in 1974. They had three sons — John, David and Paul — who all wrestled and had varying degrees of success. Mudgway and his son John both won titles at the 1968 City of Sydney open championships in their respective weight divisions, the first and only father and son combination to have achieved this. A dairy farmer, Mudgway died on 16 April 1988 and was buried at

Hāwera Hāwera is the second-largest centre in the Taranaki region of New Zealand's North Island, with a population of . It is near the coast of the South Taranaki Bight. The origins of the town lie in a government military base that was established i ...

Cemetery.

References

1924 births 1988 deaths Wrestlers at the 1950 British Empire Games Commonwealth Games gold medallists for New Zealand Burials at Hawera Cemetery New Zealand male sport wrestlers Commonwealth Games medallists in wrestling Medallists at the 1950 British Empire Games {{NewZealand-wrestling-bio-stub