Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Full name | Richard John Edward Patterson | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Auckland, New Zealand | 30 April 1983||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 1.67 m (5 ft 6 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 84 kg (185 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Country | New Zealand | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | Weightlifting | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Richard John Edward Patterson (born 30 April 1983) is a weightlifting competitor for New Zealand.
At the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi he won the silver medal in the men's 85 kg weightlifting event.[1] Four years later, at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, he won the gold medal in the same event.[2] He was New Zealand's flagbearer in the 2014 Commonwealth Games closing ceremony.[3]
To qualify for the 2012 Summer Olympics Patterson had to rely on fellow New Zealand teammate Tavita Ngalu to lift 150 kg at the Oceania Championships. In a selfless act Ngalu did so while injured with ripped quadriceps and New Zealand's highest ranked weightlifter (Patterson) qualified for the Games.[4]
Patterson married fellow weightlifter Phillipa Hale in Glasgow on 31 July 2014, after both had competed in the Commonwealth Games (Hale competed in the women's 53 kg event).[3][5]