In addition to his Olympic achievements,[2] Robinson has also contributed to the sport of kayaking and surf lifesaving in Australia.
Career
Robinson was born in Brisbane and grew up in Nambour on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland. As a junior surf lifesaving competitor, he won the Cadet Malibu Board Race at the 1987 National Surf Lifesaving Championships. The following year, he was invited to train with the Australian Olympic kayak squad, eventually competing in five Summer Olympics.[3]
In 1992, Robinson won the gold medal in the K-1 1000m event at the Barcelona Summer Olympics, becoming Australia's first Olympic gold medalist in canoe/kayak.[citation needed] He secured the victory by defeating Knut Holmann, the reigning World Champion from Norway, in a close finish. After the race, Robinson was reportedly dehydrated, which delayed his ability to provide a urine sample for doping analysis for several hours.[4]In the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, he competed again in the K-1 1000m event, where he earned a bronze medal after leading early in the race. At the 2004Athens Olympics, Robinson teamed with Nathan Baggaley to win a silver medal in the K-2 500 m event.[5]
Robinson, awarded an OAM for the finest national championship record of any surf lifesaver (when his gold-medal tally reached 30), was also a promising young rugby league footballer, but from the age of 12 his ambition in sport never deviated. In that year, 1984, he was watching the Los Angeles Games on television when his father asked him what he wanted to do with his life. The answer quickly came: "I want to go to the Olympics and win a gold medal."[6]
Robinson competed in the Uncle Toby's Super Series (Professional Iron Man circuit) from 1989 to 1995 and donated both the board and ski legs of the races. Due to his heavy training regime for kayaks, Clint had little time to train for swimming and running and his performances on the Iron Man circuit suffered due to this.[7]
Robinson has continued to compete in surf lifesaving, winning a place on the Australian teams of 1993, 1995 and 1999. In 1999, he surpassed Trevor Hendy's record of 23 national titles to become the most successful Australian surf lifesaver at the time or, debatably, ever. By 2008 at the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics, he had extended his tally to 36 titles. He was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2013 as an Athlete Member for his contribution to multiple sports: swimming, canoe/kayak and surf lifesaving.[8]
Clint is generally regarded as the greatest competitor in the history of Surf Lifesaving. He has won Australian titles in the ski and board races and also won the board rescue, board relay, double ski, ski relay, and Taplin relay. His 13 open-age individual titles rank second only to Ky Hurst.[9]
In 2001, he was inducted into the Australian Institute of Sport 'Best of the Best'.[10] In 2017, Robinson was made head coach of Sunshine Beach Surf Life Saving Club after coaching water skiing there in 2016.[11]
Robinson is also an experienced media professional, having worked as a commentator and sports presenter. In 1998, he joined WIN Television as a sports presenter on the Sunshine Coast edition of WIN News. He had previously been a commentator on WIN Television's coverage of the "Maroochy Surf Classic".[12]
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