Russell Andrew Mark, OAM (born 25 February, 1964 in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia) is an Australia n Olympic Champion marksman and world-renowned clay target shooting coach specialising in the disciplines of Olympic Trap and American Trap. Mark is a former World and Olympic Record holder and held the world number one ranking on multiple occasions. He won the gold medal in the Double Trap event at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. He also won a silver medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. Mark competed at six Olympic Games: 1988 (Trap), 1992 (Trap), 1996 (Trap and Double Trap), 2000 (Trap and Double Trap), 2008 (Double Trap), 2012 (Double Trap).[1] The only Australian Summer Olympian to compete in more Olympiads is Andrew Hoy (seven).
His win at the Atlanta 1996 Summer Olympics gave him the distinction of being the world's inaugural shotgun competitor to win an individual gold medal in all four of the major International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) titles; the World Cup, the World Cup Final, the World Championship and the Olympic Games. Uniquely after the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics, he also has a complete set of silver medals from all four of the world's major championships. This is an honour he solely shares with the legendary American female clay target shooter and six time Olympic medalist, Kimberley Rhode.
Mark is a dual World Individual Champion (1994 in Fagnano, Italy and 1997 in Lima, Peru) and also dual World Team Champion in 1998 (Double Trap at Barcelona, Spain with Michael Diamond and Adam Vella) and 1999 (Trap in Tampere, Finland with Michael Diamond and Glenn Kable). When Mark won the World Cup Trap Gold Medal in Los Angeles, USA (1991) he became the first-ever Australian to win an individual ISSF World Cup in any Shooting discipline. He also won World Cup gold medals in Lonato, Italy (1992); Munich, Germany (1994); Lima, Peru (1999); Sydney, Australia (2000); and Perth, Australia (2003). At the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Mark won a gold medal in men's Double Trap.
Personal life
Early years
Mark grew up on a semi-rural property on the outskirts of Ballarat in the suburb of Brown Hill. He played junior Australian rules football for the East Ballarat Football Club, cricket for the Brown Hill Cricket Club. He represented Ballarat in the annual junior country week cricket tournament in January 1979. Mark was also a member of the Buninyong Golf Club where his mother, Joan, was a multiple club champion. During his secondary school years he was a prolific athletics champion in the high jump event where he set several school records and represented at inter-school athletic carnivals from 1975 to 1981.
He commenced competitive clay target shooting at the Sebastopol Clay Target Club, Ballarat in 1977. His father, Brian, was the Australian Marketing Manager for the American firearms company, Winchester, from 1975 to 1981. His eldest sibling, Geoffrey, won a National Clay Target Shooting Championship in 1983. Mark credits both his father and brother with positively influencing his early clay target shooting career.
Education
Russell Mark was educated in Ballarat, Victoria, at the Brown Hill Primary School (1969 – 1974)[2] and Ballarat East High School (1975 – 1981). He was elected as the school captain in his final year. [3] He completed a Degree of Business Studies (Property Valuation) at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (1982 – 1985).[3]
Business
After graduating from RMIT in 1985, Mark started work as a cadet real estate valuer for the City of Essendon, a municipality in Melbourne. In 1989 he began employment for the City of Werribee as the municipality's assistant valuer and in 1990 he commenced working independently as a licensed valuer from his family's real estate business that was owned and operated by his father, Brian Mark.
Mark was the National Ambassador and Master of Ceremonies for the telecommunications company, Telstra, at their State and National Australian Small Business Awards from 1997 to 2000.
In early 1997 he left the valuing and real estate industry and became a full time professional clay target shooting competitor after accepting two lucrative contracts from the giant Italian firearms company, Beretta and the iconic American ammunition manufacturer, Winchester.
In March, 1999 Mark opened a food, alcohol and gaming machine establishment operating under the name of "The Tigers Clubhouse" in Hoppers Crossing, Victoria. It is registered for commercial trading in the state of Victoria as a club. In 2012 he commenced a similar business, a licensed hotel, in Tarneit, Victoria trading under the identity of "Hotel 520".
In October, 1999 Mark formed a coaching and commercial clay target shooting entertainment business that originally offered services under the corporate identity of "Russell Mark Shooting". In 2002 it was renamed to "Corporate Shooting Stars" and from 2013 the business has traded under the title of "Go Shooting Pty Ltd" in Victoria and Queensland. In 2023 he separated the coaching and corporate sectors of the business and then sold the corporate licence agreements in both States and now no longer owns or operates the commercial/entertainment division of the company.
Mark has been a board member of several sporting organisations throughout his career, most notably the Australian Olympic Committee Athletes Commission (two terms), Shooting Australia (two terms), the Victorian Olympic Committee (two terms) and the Fosters Sports Foundation.
Political views
Mark had been a long-time supporter of the Liberal Party at both Federal and State levels. In 1996 he publicly advocated for Jeff Kennett, who was seeking endorsement to be elected for a second term as the Victorian State Premier.
Also in 1996, the reigning Liberal Prime Minister, John Howard, introduced his National Firearms Legislation after thirty-five people lost their lives in a shocking shooting massacre at Port Arthur in Tasmania. Surprisingly the Prime Minister received some support from Mark who had only just won a gold medal in the sport of shooting at the Atlanta Olympic Games. Although Mark strenuously opposed Howard regarding his new restrictions that would ban ownership of semi-automatic shotguns and rimfire rifles, he did publicly state that it was his opinion that the sale of powerful semi-automatic centre-fire military style rifles, such as the AK-47 weapon that was used in the recent slaughter, should be restricted only to licensed firearm owners that could prove a genuine need to possess this type of gun such as government employed varmint eradication workers or certain rural farmers. Mark's view on this topic polarized himself with many "pro-gun" lobbyists.
In March 2001 he sought Liberal Party pre-selection for the federal seat of Ballarat, which he achieved, but just two months prior to the election he withdrew his candidacy citing "irreconcilable differences" between himself and the constituency's retiring Liberal Party member, Michael Ronaldson. In November 2001, the Liberal-National Party alliance swept back into power, but gave up the seat of Ballarat to the Labour Party's Catherine King. This was the only federal electorate in Australia that was previously held by the reigning coalition that was lost to the opposition in the 2001 federal election.
Mark now describes himself as a "swinging voter" and is no longer a financial donor or member of any political party.
Philanthropy
Since 1997 Russell Mark has been a supporter and public ambassador for the Pied Pipers charitable organisation that raises revenue annually for the Royal Melbourne Children Hospital's Good Friday Appeal. He regularly appeared on the Channel 7 television network's annual Good Friday telethon as their cheque presentation representative. He is also a supporter and donor to another Royal Melbourne Children's Hospital charity, Finnans Gift, in support of his friend and fellow Olympic Gold Medalist, Alisa Camplin, whose infant son passed away just ten days after his birth due to an undetected heart complication.
Mark's two commercial businesses, The Tigers Clubhouse and Hotel 520, distribute approximately $250,000 annually to a wide range of sporting clubs and charities within the City of Wyndham through their community grants programs.
Other interests
Mark has a love of Australian Rules Football and is a strong supporter of the Victorian based National team, the Carlton Football Club. He also enjoys golf, snow skiing and mountain hiking.
He owns two adjoining parcels of land that have frontage to the Darling River in western New South Wales, just north of the small town of Pooncarie, where he enjoys spending time fishing, hunting and trail bike riding.
Residence
Mark shares residency between Hoppers Crossing, Victoria and Surfers Paradise, Queensland.
Family
Spouse
Russell Mark married his high school girlfriend, Natalie Anne Cartledge, in 1991. The couple divorced in 1999.
On March 17th, 2004 he married the American born, triple Commonwealth Games gold medallist and dual Olympian, Lauryn Mark (née Ogilvie) in a surprise wedding ceremony on a deserted beach at Hamilton Island, Queensland.[citation needed].
Parents
Brian William Mark (Born 17.11.1930 - Died 19.6.2009), Evelyn Joan Mark (Born 6.7.1931 - Died 11.4.2000)
Siblings
Geoffrey Ian Mark (Born 7.12.1954), David William Mark (Born 30.3.1956)
Children
Holly Anne Mark (Born 23.9.1998), Sierra Evelyn Mark (Born 23.6.2005) and Indiana Todd Mark (Born 29.1.2007).
Competition shooting career
Mark's career included an individual Olympic gold and silver medal, 2 individual World Championships (twice runner-up), 6 World Cup Championships and 2 World Team Championships as well as 39 Australian Clay Target Association National Open Championships (current record holder). His first Open Australian Championship came in 1980 as a sixteen-year-old junior competitor in Perth where he also set a new Australian Open Record for consecutive hits. He had a streak of twenty consecutive years from 1988 to 2007 where he won at least one Australian Title each year.
In September, 1992 at a major tournament in Tamworth, NSW, Mark became the first Australian to hit more than one thousand targets in succession. He finished the competition with 1177 hits in a row breaking his own Australian record set in January, 1992 at Canberra of 859 consecutive hits. At the Geelong Clay Target Club in March, 1990 he hit 288 Double Rise targets in succession to create a new Australian Record that still stands at this time.
In 1997, he won the men's Double Trap World Championship in Peru with a new World Record.
Mark held the ISSF world number one ranking in Men's Double Trap on more than fifteen occasions between July, 1994 and September, 2003.
In 2006, Mark competed at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games where he won a gold medal with Craig Trembath in the Double Trap Pairs event. He participated in the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics, making the final and finishing 5th in Men's Double Trap. In 2010, he declared an intention to make the London 2012 Summer Olympics for his sixth and last appearance. On June 7th, 2012, Mark was named in the Australian Olympic team.[4]
As well as six Olympic appearances he also competed at six Commonwealth Games (1990, 1994, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014). Mark competed in the open individual ISSF World Championships on 22 consecutive occasions; 1986, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014. This is a record for any Australian shotgun athlete.
On August 26th, 2014 Mark announced he would be retiring from international competition on September 14th, 2014 at the conclusion of the ISSF World Championship which was conducted in Granada, Spain.
Russell Mark is one of the world's most successful, influential and sought after clay target shooting coaches. He has trained competitors, national teams and coaches in a multitude of countries that include Great Britain, USA, Qatar, India, Thailand, Japan, Brunei, Singapore, Philippines, South Korea, Trinidad and Tobago, Slovenia, Montenegro, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Kuwait and Italy.
In October, 1996 Mark received world-wide media attention for taking a contract to coach Prince Sufri Bolkiah from Brunei, at his personal shooting range for two weeks.
In 2004, Mark served as part of the administrative support team at the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics working for the Australian Olympic Committee as an Athlete's Liaison Officer[5] as well as controversially taking the position as the personal coach to the Indian marksman Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore who went on to become India's first ever individual Olympic medalist by winning a silver medal.
In February, 2019 Mark and his wife, Lauryn, created the highly successful online coaching YouTube channel "Go Shooting Shotgun Coaching Videos" that now display over one hundred tutorials.
In April, 2022 he agreed on a one-year contract to be employed by the Sports Authority of India as the foreign Trap shooting coach for the Indian Shotgun Team. He resigned from this position on May 28th, 2023, after successfully qualifying the Indian Trap Team for participation at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
Mark started employment with the Qatar Olympic Committee on July 5, 2023 as the coach of the National Trap Shooting Team for the remainder of the 2023 international season. On October 30th, 2023 Mark triumphantly gained Qatar entry into the Men's Trap event at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games after they won a starting quota place at the 15th Asian Shooting Championships held at Changwon, South Korea which was the last major title of the year. The following day he sensationally announced he was retiring immediately as the Qatar National Coach.
In February 2024, Mark was selected as an inaugural board member of the newly formed ISSF Coaching Academy in Munich, Germany.
On March 6th, 2024, Shooting Australia announced that Mark would become the consultant Trap coach of the Olympic Shotgun Squad for the next four months and would prepare them for the forthcoming 2024 Olympics in July. Mark achieved immediate international success with the Australian Team when they won the 2024 World Cup at Baku, Azerbaijan in the Men's Trap competition therefore gaining his athlete entry into the 2024 Olympic Games. In doing so he became the first coach in the history of the International Shooting Sports Federation to be involved in qualifying three athletes from three different countries for participation into the Olympic Games in the one single Olympiad; India in 2022, Qatar in 2023 and finally Australia in 2024.
Mark announced he would not be attending the 2024 Olympic Games with the Australian Shooting Team as he had made a commitment to work as a media commentator for the Australian Television Network, Channel 9.
On July 14th, 2024 News Corp Australia published articles announcing that for the week prior to the 2024 Olympics commencing, Mark would be coaching the Indian Men's Trap team at a shooting range on the outskirts of Paris. Mark stated in the article the work he had done for the Australian Team was "gratis" as he did not ask for a coaching fee, but his decision to once again coach the Indian team was based purely on financial issues.
Media career
Mark worked for the Melbourne radio station, 3AW as a co-host on their weekend sports program from 1997 to 2002. From 2003 until 2016 he was employed by ABC Radio in Melbourne on the Red Symons mid-week breakfast program as a sports presenter.
From 2001 until 2006 he worked for Channel 7, an Australian television network, on their national Sunday morning sports program, Sportsworld, as a co-host. Channel 9 employed Mark as a television commentator at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Malaysia. He again took the role as a commentator for the Channel 7 network at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics, 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and at the 2020 (2021) Tokyo Summer Olympics.
He has been employed by Channel 9 to commentate the Shooting events at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
Russell Mark has written a monthly coaching and advice article for Australia's largest shooting sports publication, Australian Shooter, since 1998.
Honours
Mark has been a Global Ambassador for the world's leading firearm manufacturer, Beretta Italy, since 1986.
His home shooting range was the Werribee-Victorian Clay Target Club. Mark was made a life member of the club in 1996. He is also a life member of the Geelong Clay Target Club and the Melbourne Cricket Club Clay Target Section, a club where he was elected as the inaugural chairman in 2008.
He has been an ambassador to the Australian Football League team, Carlton, since 1997 and the number one ticket holder for the Victorian Football League club, Werribee, since 1993.
In August 2007, in Munich, Germany the International Shooting Sports Federation inducted him as the greatest Double Trap competitor of all time. This was an accolade he shared with fellow shotgun shooters Luciano Giovannetti (men's trap, from Italy), Kimberly Rhode (women's double trap and skeet, from USA), and Susan Nattrass (women's trap, from Canada).
In March 2009, at 45 years of age, Mark was admitted into the Australian Clay Target Association's Hall of Fame as its youngest member at the time.
The Australian Clay Target Association made Russell Mark a life member in March 2024.
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