|
Geoffrey "Geoff" John Henke, AO〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Henke, Geoffrey John, AO )〕 is a former Australian ice hockey player and Australian Olympic Committee official. He was the chef de mission of the Australian Winter Olympic delegations from 1976 until 1994, and is credited with ending the neglect of winter sports in Australia. == Olympic participation == Winter sports have traditionally been unattended to by Australian Olympic officials. In 1956, the ice hockey team offered to pay their own way and the only thing that they needed from the AOF was formal permission. However, the AOF never responded to their request, and they were unable to attend, and criticised the AOF for their disinterest. One of the affected athletes was Henke.〔Gordon (2003), pp. 271–272.〕 Henke became the chef de mission in 1976 and held the position for two decades, until Ian Chesterman took over in 1998.〔''The Compendium'', pp. 215–227.〕 Henke rose to become vice-president of the AOF,〔Gordon (1994), p. 412.〕 and is accredited with ending the AOF's neglect of winter sport.〔〔Gordon (1994), p. 421.〕 Up until Henke's appointment, Colin Hickey and Malcolm Milne had been the only athletes to have placed in the top half of any event.〔〔Gordon (1994), p. 412.〕 In 1981, Henke took AOF board members into the Australian Alps for a board meeting, allowing him to exploit the environment to promote winter sport. He said that the next Olympics "was the first time the AOF ever really got behind the winter team".〔Gordon (1994), p. 422.〕 The 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France was viewed as the potential start of a new era in Australian winter sports, with hopes that a maiden medal would result.〔McAvaney, p. 132.〕 Australia's short track relay team went into the 1992 Olympics as world champions, but the team crashed in the semi-finals.〔Andrews, p. 3.〕〔Gordon (1994), p. 426.〕 Kirstie Marshall was in the process of winning the World Cup series for the year, and was one of the favourites for the women's aerial skiing,〔 but she crash-landed and finished seventh.〔McAvaney p. 135.〕 In 1994, Australia's short track relay team won Australia's first Winter Olympic medal, a bronze.〔〔Andrew, p. 251.〕 It was a successful campaign for Henke's swansong; the largest team that Australia had sent apart from 1960, with 27 athletes, recorded an unprecedented five top 10 finishes. Marshall came sixth in aerials,〔 while Kerryn Rim placed eighth in the 15 km biathlon and Steven Bradbury and Nizielski of the medal-winning relay team placed eighth and tenth in the 500 m and 1,000 m short track events respectively.〔Andrews, p. 252.〕 In contrast to the previous games, the Australians placed in the top half of the field in six of their eight individual starts.〔Gordon (1994), p. 526.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Geoff Henke」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|