Olympics-Australia mourns death of oldest Olympian

ByReuters

Published 02/08/2016 at 22:36 GMT

Australia mourned the death of its oldest Olympian on Tuesday after former swimming coach and modern pentathlete Forbes Carlile passed away in Sydney at the age of 95.

Eurosport

Image credit: Eurosport

Carlile coached Australia at the 1948 London Games and competed in Helsinki in 1952.

The national Olympic Committee said he was the only Australian to participate in a Games as a coach before competing.

Known for his pioneering work on tapering and elite training methods, he returned to coaching the Australian swimming team at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and then the Dutch squad at the 1964 Games.

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"Whenever a coach in Australia makes the national team he receives a ring with a number," head swimming coach Jacco Verhaeren told reporters at the Rio Olympics.

"Forbes Carlile is the number one. He is the genuine alpha, the lord of the rings. And he was so innovative and really defined the job of coaching, reinvented it. We owe him a lot."

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