Dr Richard Charlesworth AO, Cit. WA, born in Subiaco in 1952, is the ‘Mr Hockey’ of Australian hockey and arguably one of the world’s greatest hockey players of all time.

Selected in five Olympic hockey teams between 1972-1988, he played in the national team for 17 years, amassing 227 international matches and scoring 85 goals.

In 1976 he was vice captain in the Silver medal winning team at the Montreal Olympics (no Australian won a gold medal in Montreal).
Ric was appointed captain of the Men’s Olympic Hockey Team at two Olympics (1980 and 1984) and proudly carried the Australian flag at the Opening Ceremony of the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.

He played in four World Cups in 1975, 1978 (Bronze Medal), 1981 (Bronze Medal) and 1986 (Gold Medal). In the 1986 triumph he was a key member of the team, the tournament’s leading scorer and voted Player of the Tournament.

He led Australia to its first major tournament win in the 1983 Champions Trophy, and the 1986 World Cup win was Australia’s first in the prestigious tournament held every four years. Ric’s dedication to being the best player he could be was driven by a fiercely competitive spirit.

He was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1987 and in 2008 was an inaugural inductee into the Hockey Australia Hall of Fame. Ric became a Legend of the Hockey Australia Hall of Fame in 2016.

His coaching record is unsurpassed and on a world scale he would rank amongst the world’s greatest and most successful coaches across all sports. Few if any can match his win loss record.

Commencing with the Hockeyroos in 1993, he coached the team to two Olympic Gold Medals (1996, 2000) and two World Cup Gold Medals (1994, 1998).

Ric coached the Hockeyroos in 252 international matches. He finished with a winning percentage of 78.8%, drawing 9.9% and losing only 11.9% of those matches. During Ric’s reign, in a world-wide poll, the Hockeyroos were voted as one of the top 10 sporting teams of the last century.

Between 2009 and 2014 he coached the Australian Men’s Team the Kookaburras in 193 internationals, winning 78.8% of matches, drawing 10.9% and losing 10.3%.

During his tenure in charge of the Kookaburras the team won two World Cups (2010, 2014) and a Bronze Medal at the 2012 London Olympics.

Overall, Ric coached the Australian men and women in a total of 444 international matches for a win loss percentage of over 78% including six Olympic and World Cup Gold medals from seven attempts, eight Champions Trophy Gold medals from nine attempts and two Commonwealth Games Gold Medals.
It is a record never, and unlikely to be ever, equalled in sport. In the above 18 major tournaments Charlesworth’s team won 16 times and bronze twice.