David McKenzie (fencer)

David McKenzie (15 July 1936 – 10 August 1981) was an Australian fencer. He competed at the 1956, 1960 and 1964 Summer Olympics.[1] He was an International Olympic Committee member from 1974 to 1981.[2] He replaced Lewis Luxton who had resigned.[3] McKenzie gained notoriety for encouraging Dennis Tutty to go to court to challenge rugby league's restraint of trade clauses, a case that would change professional sport in Australia.[4]

David McKenzie
Personal information
Born(1936-07-15)15 July 1936
Sydney, Australia
Died10 August 1981(1981-08-10) (aged 45)
Sport
SportFencing
Medal record
Fencing
Representing  Australia
British Empire Games
Silver medal – second place 1962 Perth Men's Team Foil

In August 1981, while attending a meeting of National Olympic Committees in Milan, McKenzie received an urgent telegram requesting that he leave Italy and travel to the United States to meet with the organizers of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. On his way, he stopped over at Honolulu and was found strangled to death in a Waikiki bath house. The murder remains unsolved.[5][6]

One of the officials he was to meet was William E. Simon, then president of the US Olympic Committee. Simon expressed his suspicions about the nature of McKenzie's death in his autobiography, published posthumously in 2003, claiming that foul play was involved.[5]

References
  1. "David McKenzie Olympic Results". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 12 October 2010.
  2. "AOC Office Bearers and Australian IOC Members". Australian Olympic Committee website. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  3. Gordon, Harry (1994). Australia at the Olympic Games. Brisbane: University of Queensland Press. ISBN 0702226270.
  4. "How Olympic fencer David McKenzie helped Dennis Tutty change the course of rugby league".
  5. "How an Olympic fencer and future IOC member helped change the course of rugby league". ABC News. 17 December 2021. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
  6. "David Henry MCKENZIE". Olympics. Retrieved 11 October 2023.


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