Ray Godkin OAM

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Awarded Life Membership 15 September 1984

 

Birth: 1934, Sydney NSW

 

Ray Godkin OAM was the sixth Chairman of the Australian Commonwealth Games Association, a position he held for a decade from 1987 to 1998.

Ray was born in Homebush NSW and spent his very early years growing up on Underwood Road, which decades later became the road leading into the Sydney Olympic Games Village.

A fitter and turner, then engineer, Ray joined the NSW Police at 26, forming the NSW Police Accident Investigation Squad in 1982.

Ray was a keen cyclist, competing through his teenage years right through to his retirement as an active competitor at age 42. His brother Barry represented Australia in track cycling at the Perth 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games.

He first became involved in administration of cycling in the 1970’s and remained heavily involved after finishing his competitive riding, becoming President of NSW Cycling, before rising to President of the Australian Cycling Federation in 1985, remaining in that position until 2000.

During this time, he served as Section Manager for Cycling at the Brisbane 1982 Commonwealth Games and Transport Officer in Edinburgh in 1986 and was Section Manager of the Australian Cycling Team at the Los Angeles 1984 and Seoul 1988 Olympic Games teams.

Ray’s time at Cycling Australia coincided with some of the sport’s most important developments.  He facilitated the introduction of cycling to the Australian Institute of Sport, which led to significant international success at Olympics, Commonwealth Games and world championships for Australian cyclists.

He became Treasurer of the International Amateur Cycling Federation (FIAC) following the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games and was a major contributor in the merger of the professional body with FIAC to form the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) as it is known today.

Ray went on to become UCI Senior Vice President in 1985, holding the position until 2008.

His interest and passion for cycling was taking more of his time and its one of the reasons he retired from the police force at age 55 to become Competition Manager for Cycling at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

Aside from his role with the Australian Commonwealth Games Association as President, Ray also served for four years on the Australian Olympic Committee executive.

He acted as UCI technical delegate at nine Commonwealth Games and six Olympics Games.

For his services to Australian sport, the Commonwealth and Olympic Games and cycling, he was honoured with the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 1989 ‘For services to cycling’, was awarded the Australian Sports Medal in 2000 ‘For outstanding service as an official’. He is a Life Member of New South Wales Cycling (1986) and the Australian Cycling Federation (1999) and in 2006 he was awarded the Official of the Year at the Australian Sports Awards.  He was inducted into the Cycling Australia Hall of Fame (2015).

Ray Godkin with then Prime Minister John Howard at the launch of the Kuala Lumpur 1998 Commonwealth Games team. (CGA Archive)

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