Richard Ian Charlesworth AO (born 6 February 1952) is an Australian sports coach and former politician. He played

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

for

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

and international

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ...

for the Kookaburras (the Australian national team), winning a silver medal at the

1976 Summer Olympics Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 P ...

. Charlesworth served as a federal member of parliament from 1983 to 1993, representing the Labor Party. After leaving politics, he was appointed coach of the Hockeyroos (the national women's field hockey team), leading them to Olympic gold medals in 1996 and 2000. Charlesworth later coached the Kookaburras from 2009 to 2014, and has also worked in consulting roles with the New Zealand national cricket team, the Australian Institute of Sport, and the

Fremantle Football Club The Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed the Dockers, is a professional Australian rules football club competing in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The team was founded in 1994 to represent the port city of Fr ...

(an Australian football team).

Biography

Born in

Subiaco, Western Australia Subiaco (known colloquially as Subi) is an inner- western suburb of Perth, the capital of Western Australia. It is approximately west of Perth's central business district, in the City of Subiaco local government area. Historically a working-cl ...

, Charlesworth attended Christ Church Grammar School until he graduated in 1969. In 1976, he completed a medical degree (MB, BS) from the University of Western Australia School of Medicine. In 2002, he received an honorary Doctorate of Science at the University of Western Australia and completed a Bachelor of Arts majoring in philosophy and history also at the University of Western Australia. His father Lester Charlesworth, a dentist, represented Western Australia in cricket between 1949–1951.

Cricket

In 1969 he captained the

Western Australian Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

State under 19 cricket team before going on to play A grade Club cricket for West Perth (1969–1970, 1976–82) and University Cricket Club (1970–76). He played in 47 first-class matches for

from 1972 until 1979, making 2,327 runs at an average of 30.22. He was a member of Sheffield Shield winning teams in 1972–73, 1976–77, 1977–78, and was a squad member in the winning season of 1974–75.

Hockey

Player

Charlesworth was coached by Ray House at Christ Church Grammar School, where he was promoted to the school's first XI at an early age. He was a member of the PSA Hockey Cup (now known as the Ray House Hockey Cup) winning teams of 1966–67. He played in and captained the Western Australia hockey team and the Australia men's

team the '' Kookaburras''. He was selected to represent Australia in five Olympic hockey teams, 1972, 1976, 1980 (captain) (

Moscow Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (russian: Летние Олимпийские игры 1980, Letniye Olimpiyskiye igry 1980), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad (russian: Игры XXII Олимпиады, Igry XXII Olimpiady) and commo ...

were boycotted), 1984 (captain), and 1988, winning Silver at the 1976, Montreal Olympic Games. He was a member of the national team which competed in various other international tournaments including winning the World Hockey Cup in London in 1986 where he was named player of the Tournament. He retired from playing after representing Australia at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. He played 227 games for his country and scored 85 goals. Charlesworth was inducted into the Australian Hockey Hall of Fame in 2008, the second person to achieve this award. In 1980, while playing for The

University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany and various other facilitie ...

Hockey Club, Charlesworth also won the Olympian's Medal, an annual award presented to the player judged by umpires to be the fairest and best in men's first division competition in Western Australia. In addition, the female equivalent of this award, the Charlesworth Medal, is named in his honour.

Coach

From 1993 to 2000 he was head coach of the Australian Women's hockey team, the '' Hockeyroos''. During this time they won the Champion's Trophy in 1993 (Amsterdam), 1995 (Mar del Plata), 1997 (Berlin) and 1999 (Brisbane), the World Hockey Cup in 1994 (Dublin) and 1998 (Netherlands) and were gold medallists in the

Atlanta Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

in 1996 and Sydney Olympics in 2000 and

1998 Commonwealth Games The 1998 Commonwealth Games ''( Malay: Sukan Komanwel 1998)'', officially known as the XVI Commonwealth Games ''(Malay: Sukan Komanwel ke-16)'', was a multi-sport event held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This edition is marked by several unpreceden ...

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = ''Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , sub ...

. Prior to his appointment as technical adviser to the men's and women's Indian hockey teams, he was the high-performance manager for the

New Zealand cricket team The New Zealand national cricket team represents New Zealand in men's international cricket. Named the Black Caps, they played their first Test in 1930 against England in Christchurch, becoming the fifth country to play Test cricket. From 1930 ...

. He was selected to act as an advisor to the newly formed hockey selection committee formed by the Indian Olympic Association. Charlesworth has been a mentor coach to several national team coaches with the Australian Institute of Sport and a performance consultant with the

. In 2009, Charlesworth was appointed coach of the Australian men's national hockey team, the ''Kookaburras''. The team went on to win the 2009 Men's Hockey Champions Trophy in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, Australia; the 2010 Hockey World Cup in

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Ho ...

, India; the 2010 Men's Hockey Champions Trophy in

Mönchengladbach Mönchengladbach (, li, Jlabbach ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located west of the Rhine, halfway between Düsseldorf and the Dutch border. Geography Municipal subdivisions Since 2009, the territory of Mönchengladbac ...

, Germany; the 2010 Commonwealth Games Men's Hockey Gold Medal in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...

, India and the 2011 Men's Hockey Champions Trophy in Auckland. After coaching the Kookaburras to success at the 2014 Hockey World Cup in Netherlands, he resigned.

Politics

He was elected as the Federal Member for Perth in 1983, representing the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms t ...

, and was a Member of Parliament for 10 years until retiring in 1993. Charlesworth said one reason for retiring from Parliament was that he never became a minister.

Administration

Charlesworth was a member of the

Australian Sports Commission The Australian Sports Commission (ASC) is the Australian Government commission responsible for supporting and investing in sport in Australia. The Commission incorporates the Australian Institute of Sport. From 2018 to 2022, it was known as S ...

Board 1994–97 and

Western Australian Institute of Sport The Western Australian Institute of Sport (WAIS) is an elite sports institute set up in 1983 by the Government of Western Australia to support athletes in Western Australia. Previously, if elite athletes from Western Australian needed to train or ...

Board 1984–1992, 2001–2005.

Books

He has written three books: ''The Coach – Managing for Success'', ''Staying at the Top'' and ''Shakespeare the Coach''.

Awards

*Western Australian Sportsman of the Year in 1976, 1979 and 1987 *Advance Australia Award in 1984 *Member of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gov ...

(AM) in the 1987 Queen's Birthday Honours * Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the

2016 Queen's Birthday Honours The 2016 Queen's Birthday Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as pa ...

*Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1987 * Hockey Australia Hall of Fame 2008 *Hall of Champions, WA 1995 *West Australian Sports Champions of the Year Award – Coach of the Year 1994–2000 *Australian Coaching Council Team Coach of the Year 1994, 1996, 1997,1998,1999,2000 *Confederation of Australian Sport Coach of the Year 1996, 1997 and 2000 *

Australian Sports Medal The Australian Sports Medal is an award given to recognise achievements in Australian sport to commemorate Australian participation in major sporting events. Original recipients of the award included competitors, coaches, sports scientists, offi ...

2000It's an Honour: Australian Sports Medal
. Itsanhonour.gov.au. Retrieved on 2012-05-02. *Western Australia Citizen of the Year Award 2001 *Western Australian Finalist Australian of the Year 2011 * Australian Institute of Sport Coach of the Year 2010 *Inaugural Australian Institute of Sport World's Best Award 2014

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Charlesworth, Ric 1952 births Australian male field hockey players Australian cricket coaches Australian field hockey coaches Living people Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Perth Members of the Order of Australia Recipients of the Australian Sports Medal Olympic field hockey players of Australia Olympic silver medalists for Australia University of Western Australia alumni Western Australia cricketers Women's field hockey in Australia People educated at Christ Church Grammar School Australian sportsperson-politicians Olympic medalists in field hockey Field hockey players from Perth, Western Australia Australian cricketers Australian Olympic coaches Field hockey players at the 1972 Summer Olympics Field hockey players at the 1976 Summer Olympics Field hockey players at the 1984 Summer Olympics Field hockey players at the 1988 Summer Olympics Cricketers from Western Australia Australian Institute of Sport coaches Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductees Australian medical doctors Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Medalists at the 1976 Summer Olympics 20th-century Australian politicians