Cameron Crombie

Crombie is the eldest of twin boys and was born on 14 February 1986 in Newcastle, New South Wales. He has hemiplegia (left side) because of a stroke during premature birth.^[1] His family managed to keep this from him until his diagnosis was revealed when he was 16 years of age.

Crombie completed a bachelor's degree in Economics at University of Newcastle, and moved to Canberra where he now lives. While pursuing a sporting career, he works full-time as a Project Manager and company Director, and a has been a volunteer firefighter with the Molonglo Brigade of the ACT Rural Fire Service since 2013.

Prior to taking up athletics, Crombie was involved with basketball from a young age and came up through the Junior representative levels with the Newcastle Hunters and eventually went on to play at a state level as a 16 year old.^[1]

In 2015, Crombie was introduced to para-sport, and became a National para-rowing champion by winning the men's single scull, mixed double scull (with Kathleen Murdoch) and the mixed coxed four in the LTA category, and was provisionally selected to represent Australia in the 2015 World Rowing Championships. Unfortunately, ongoing debate around classification and eligibility within rowing meant he did not compete.^[2][3][1]

In 2015 Crombie transferred to para-athletics where he was immediately internationally classified as F38 (re-confirmed in 2019^[4]). He is coached by Paralympic gold medalist Hamish MacDonald^[1] and continues to train in Canberra.

In his first major international para-athletics competition, he won the gold medal in the F38 Men's Shot Put with a world record throw of 15.95 m to smash the previous record mark by 37 cm.^[5] He also competed in the F38 Men's Javelin Throw, where he finished in 5th place with a throw that increased his personal best by over 3.5m.

Crombie represented his country for a second time, competing at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, Australia. Here he competed in the F38 Men's Shot put alongside fellow Australians Martin Jackson and Jayden Sawyer. Crombie finished with a best throw of 15.74m, ahead of Jackson, who took the silver medal with 13.74m.

In May 2019, Crombie, Sawyer and fellow athletes James Turner and Deon Kenzie were selected to represent Australia at the upcoming 2019 World Para Athletics Championships to be held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, with the remainder of the team to be named in September, 2019.^[6]

At the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships in Dubai, he repeated his success at the 2017 Championships by winning the gold medal in the Men's Shot Put F38 with a throw of 15.73m.^[7]

• 2017 Canberra Sport Awards - The People's Sporting Champion.^[8]
• 2017-18 Athletics ACT - Male Senior Athlete of the Year
• 2017-18 Athletics ACT - Para Athlete of the Year
• 2019-20 Athletics ACT - Male Senior Athlete of the Year