As this Olympiad draws to a close, those of us watching cannot have failed to have been impressed by the dedication, resilience and sheer brilliance of those olympians who have entertained us.  Whether winners of medals or not, those that compete and thereby earn the right to be called an Olympian, deserve, in sporting terms, the highest respect that can be afforded.

There have been many highlights throughout the games, all of which for each of us will be different.  (The opening ceremony was perhaps not one of those for all of us).  For the Society, as we posted at the commencement of the games, we congratulated Conor Hall on his achievement of becoming an Olympian.  He is the ninth such OC to achieve this coveted status, and the 12th Olympic Games at which an OC has competed (three OCs competed at two Olympic Games each).

The society has commissioned a history of OC sporting greats which is currently in compilation.  It will include these nine Olympians listed below, as well as other sporting internationals.  Demand is expected to be high and so we would ask those interested to register same by emailing ocs.manager@oldcampbellians.co.uk

ROBERT CAMPBELL ROBB (170). London 1908 - Athletics 440 yards Great Britain

Our first Olympian came just 14 years after the college opened its doors and only 6 years after the foundation of the society. Robert Robb, known as Bertie, was the son of a well-known Belfast merchant Kirker Robb. Robert and his brother Victor established a well known motor car engineering business in Belfast, and his love of cars, and high speed often meant appearances in local magistrate’s courts for Bertie on speeding and reckless driving offences. He took his love of speed to another level when he obtained an aviator’s licence in 1916, which was put to good use as he was granted a Commission into the Royal Naval Air Service (Royal Flying Corps) that same year.

Robb was an all-round sportsman and was a well-known local footballer and rugby player. As an athlete, he finished second in the IAAA 440 yards in both 1907 and 1908 to Ivo Fairbairn-Crawford and George Morphy. He also competed in the International against Scotland at Edinburgh in 1908 but finished third of three, as the only Irish runner, in the 440 y. He was eliminated in his heat at the Olympic Games that year.

Robb’s brother Victor was injured during the War in 1916, after being shot in the shoulder, and returned to England only to die in hospital shortly afterward from septic poisoning. After the War, Bertie moved to England and made his home there.  He died on 23rd November 1941 aged 59 years old.

ANDREW HUNTER (5426).  Munich 1972 - Swimming 100 m Freestyle. Ireland

Andy was British University’s 100m Freestyle Champion for four successive years.

He placed 2nd in the British Championships in 1971.

Andy also competed at the 1970 and 1974 Commonwealth Games for Northern Ireland.  In 1974 he finished 7th in the 100m freestyle final

JULIE BROWN (neé PARKES (7062). Los Angeles 1984 - Swimming 100m & 200m Butterfly, Ireland

Julie, our current President and daughter of the late Fred Parkes, competed at the 1978 Commonwealth Games aged 13 and was the youngest member of the Northern Ireland team. She was a member of the Medley Relay which finished 6th in the Final.

At the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, while still a pupil at Campbell, she made the semifinals of the 100m Butterfly, placing 11th.

At the 1984 Olympics Julie swam in the 100m and 200m Butterfly.

PETER KENNEDY (6542).  Seoul 1988, Barcelona 1992 - Sailing, Ireland.

Placing 10th and 14th respectively in each games.

JOHN DRISCOLL (7309).  Atlanta 1996 - Sailing, Ireland

It is rumoured (!) that John Driscoll may have been the first olympian to ever take a selfie, when leading one of his races he captured himself with a disposable camera with the rest of the field behind him!  He is now a teacher.

ANDREW BREE (8226).  Sydney 2000, Beijing 2008 - Swimming, Ireland.

Andy Bree swam at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia while in lower 6th at Campbell. He competed at 4 Commonwealth Games in total (1998,2002,2006,2010) He finished 5th in the 200m Breaststroke in 2002 and 2006.

In 2003 he won the 200m Breaststroke silver medal at the European Short Course Championships in Dublin.

At the 2008 Olympics he placed 11th overall.

PETER CARUTH (9600).  Rio de Janeiro 2016 - Hockey, Ireland

He was a member of the Ireland team that won the bronze medal at the 2015 Men's EuroHockey Nations Championship.  At club level he has won Men's Irish Hockey League titles and the EuroHockey Club Trophy with Monkstown and the Kirk Cup with Annadale.  He has been capped 148 times for Ireland.  The Ireland team placed 10th at the 2016 Olympics.

PATRICK HUSTON (10983).  Rio de Janeiro 2016, Tokyo 2021 - Archery, GB & NI

Patrick became involved in archery as an eight-year-old pupil at Cabin Hill School. Under the tutelage of British longbow champion and his teacher Audrey Needham (Hon OC), Huston began to show his potential to the sport by joining and serving as a mainstay of Campbell College's archery club.

Upon his entry to the Northern Ireland Elite Squad as a fourteen-year-old, Huston trained part-time as an archer, and eventually started competing in both local and regional tournaments regularly. In September 2011, Huston founded his very own East Belfast Archery Club.[9] In 2014 he left Campbell College to train full-time at Lillleshall National Sporting Centre.  He has had a career high world ranking of 14th in the world and was the first archer to win the Great Britain National Series Recurve title three times in a row.  2022 brought success in the UK winning the National Series for a record 5th time. He won a bronze medal at the World Field Archery Championships in Birmingham, Alabama.

CONOR HALL (10967).  Paris 2024 - Archery, GB & NI.

Conor started Campbell in 2007. He had done archery a few times prior to starting Campbell College and really enjoyed it, so when he found out there was an archery club under the tutelage of the aforementioned Audrey Needham, he signed up straight away and never looked back. Conor became the first ever European Field archery mixed team champion along with Bryony Pitman in the 2021 European Field Championships in Croatia. In 2023, he became the British Target Champion.

He is our 9th Olympian……so far.