When was bill roycroft born

He died in the Camperdown Hospital on Sunday morning and will be remembered as a pioneer of his sport. Roycroft won a gold medal in the team three-day event at the Rome Games, riding in his first Olympics at the age of 45 and competing with a broken collarbone. He competed in the three-day event at five consecutive Olympic Games, and competed alongside each of his sons Barry, Wayne and Clarke.

When Roycroft won bronze at the Games in Montreal he became Australia's oldest medallist and oldest competitor at 61 years and 31 days. On the last day of the three-day equestrian event, Australia faced a grim predicament. Slowly he built up his string of horses and began to achieve success, first locally then at national level. Overlooked for the Games he was already 45 when he made his Olympic debut in Rome but what happened there made him a legend in Australian sport.

The other three members of the Australian team had excelled on the cross-country phase of the three day event and filled the first three places in the individual event with only the show jumping phase to follow. Home News Latest News. He died in Camperdown Hospital on Sunday aged Mr Roycroft won the event and he and Mr Leishman became good friends. Mr Roycroft was 61 when he rode in his last Olympics and continued to ride until he was Mr Leishman was a competitive show jumper from and has been judging events since the s.

Ad blocker issue Your ad blocker may be preventing you from being able to log in or subscribe. He was injured on the cross country at the Rome Olympics, and taken to hospital, but when one of the team horses went lame, he ignored the doctors and checked himself out of hospital, and with a busted shoulder, rode the showjumping one handed on his great little horse, Our Solo, to secure team gold for Australia.

Bill went on to compete in four more Games: , , and He won team bronzes in Mexico City in and Montreal in James William George Roycroft was born in Melbourne and grew up in Flowerdale, north-east of the city, with his five brothers and two sisters on his parents dairy farm.