Simon Dickie

{{short description|New Zealand rowing cox}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2016}}

{{Use New Zealand English|date=September 2016}}

{{Infobox sportsperson

| name = Simon Dickie

| image =

| alt =

| caption =

| birth_name = Simon Charles Dickie{{Cite Sports-Reference |title=Simon Dickie |url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/di/simon-dickie-1.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200417235729/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/di/simon-dickie-1.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=17 April 2020 |access-date=8 March 2017}}

| birth_date = {{birth date|1951|3|31|df=y}}

| birth_place = Waverley, Taranaki, New Zealand

| death_date = {{death date and age|2017|12|13|1951|3|31|df=y}}

| death_place = Taupō, New Zealand

| residence =

| education = Wanganui Collegiate School

| alma_mater =

| occupation =

| years_active =

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| height = {{convert|172|cm|ftin|abbr=on}}

| weight = {{convert|54|kg|lb|abbr=on}}

| sport = Rowing

| club = Wellington Rowing Club

| medaltemplates =

{{MedalSport | Men's rowing }}

{{MedalCountry | {{NZL}} }}

{{MedalCompetition | Olympic Games }}

{{MedalGold | 1968 Mexico | Coxed four }}

{{MedalGold | 1972 Munich | Eight }}

{{MedalBronze | 1976 Montreal | Eight }}

{{MedalCompetition | World Rowing Championships }}

{{MedalBronze | 1970 St. Catharines | Eight }}

{{MedalCompetition | European Rowing Championships }}

{{MedalGold | 1971 Copenhagen | Eight}}

}}

Simon Charles Dickie (31 March 1951 – 13 December 2017) was a New Zealand rowing cox who won three Olympic medals.

Dickie was born in 1951 in Waverley in Taranaki, New Zealand.{{cite web |title=Simon Dickie |url=https://olympic.org.nz/athletes/simon-dickie |publisher=New Zealand Olympic Committee|access-date=9 November 2016}} He was educated at Wanganui Collegiate School where he was part of the Maadi Cup winning crews between 1966 and 1968. For the 1968 Summer Olympics, New Zealand qualified an eight and had a pool of four rowers and a cox as a travelling reserve; Dickie was part of this reserve as their cox. Preparations were held in Christchurch at Kerr's Reach on the Avon River. The reserve rowers were unhappy with the "spare parts" tag and felt that they were good enough to perhaps win a medal if put forward as a coxed four. The trainer, Rusty Robertson, commented about them that they were "the funniest looking crew you've ever seen".{{cite news |title=Famed New Zealand Olympic rower Dudley Storey dies |url= http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/90123831/Famed-New-Zealand-Olympic-rower-Dudley-Storey-dies |access-date=6 March 2017 |work=Stuff |date=6 March 2017}} There were stern discussions with the New Zealand selectors. In a training run, the coxed four was leading fours formed from the eight over the whole race. In the end, the reserve rowers got their way and New Zealand entered both the coxed four and the eight.{{cite web |title=New Zealand Rowing at the 1968 Ciudad de México Summer Games |url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/countries/NZL/summer/1968/ROW/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200417170350/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/countries/NZL/summer/1968/ROW/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=17 April 2020 |publisher=Sports Reference |access-date=8 March 2017}} Dickie won the Olympic coxed four event along with Dick Joyce, Dudley Storey, Ross Collinge and Warren Cole;{{cite web |title=Rowing at the 1968 Ciudad de México Summer Games: Men's Coxed Fours |url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/1968/ROW/mens-coxed-fours.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200418130302/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/1968/ROW/mens-coxed-fours.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=18 April 2020 |publisher=Sports Reference |access-date=7 September 2016}} this was New Zealand's first gold medal in rowing. At the time, he was a 17-year-old schoolboy at Wanganui Collegiate, called in to replace a previous cox who had been killed in a training accident. The crew's winning boat was later sold to a rowing club to recoup costs, and ended up in splinters after a road crash.{{Cite journal|last=White|first=Mike|date=May 2018|title=The greatest race you never heard of: NZ's first gold medal in rowing|url=https://www.noted.co.nz/life/sport/nzs-first-gold-medal-in-rowing/|journal=North & South|volume=386|pages=58–66}}

Dickie was part of the eight that was formed for the 1971 rowing season; he teamed up with Dick Joyce, Tony Hurt, Wybo Veldman, John Hunter, Lindsay Wilson, Joe Earl, Trevor Coker and Gary Robertson. They won gold at the 1971 European Rowing Championships, defeating the favourite team from East Germany.{{cite web | url=http://www.worldrowing.com/events/1971-european-championships/mens-eight/ | title =(M8+) Men's Eight – Final | access-date=2 January 2018 | date=22 August 1971}} The New Zealand eight would go on in unchanged composition to with the 1972 Olympic eight event where they again won gold.{{Cite sports-reference |title = New Zealand at the 1972 München Summer Games |url = https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/countries/NZL/summer/1972/ |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200417055235/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/countries/NZL/summer/1972/ |url-status = dead |archive-date = 17 April 2020 |access-date = 2 January 2018 }} At the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal he was again cox for the eight which this time won the bronze medal. His crewmates this time were Tony Hurt, Alec McLean, Ivan Sutherland, Trevor Coker, Peter Dignan, Lindsay Wilson, Joe Earl and Dave Rodger.

Dickie is one of only fifteen New Zealanders to have won two or more Olympic gold medals. He later owned an adventure company in Taupō.{{cite news |last1=Maddaford |first1=Terry |title=Rowing: Stroking aside the decades |url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=2197399 |access-date=22 October 2016 |work=The New Zealand Herald |date=26 July 2002}}