COMMONWEALTH Games marathon gold medallist Steve Moneghetti has officially signed off from his role as team chef de mission for the last time.
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Moneghetti will instead maintain an active role with Australian athletes as a skills-based board member for Commonwealth Games Australia.
The Ballarat Olympian delivered his final report to CGA for the body’s annual general meeting at the weekend and was voted on to the board in the same session.
This ends a three Games-era with Moneghetti at the helm of the Australian team, a period in which he has redefined the chef de mission role as adapting to ensure Australia’s best athletes feel at ease leading into and during competition.
He steps down after the successful Gold Coast home Games in April.
“Making my final report it was kinda sad but a new door opens,” Moneghetti said.
Chef de mission is a massive responsibility but a great honour
“...It was such a great Games on the Gold Coast and I think it’s now time for a younger person to come through and mix it up.”
Moneghetti announced his decision via social media with the hashtag #IBleedCommGamesAustralia.
A long-time passionate supporter of the Commonwealth Games, it was from this multi-sport meet that allowed Moneghetti to springboard into a successful running career.
Moneghetti has been involved in nine Commonwealth Games in the past 32 years: four as an athlete, one as a liaison, athlete village mayor for Melbourne 2006 and the past three (Delhi, Glasgow and the Gold Coast) as chef de mission.
He was the last athlete picked for the 1986 Games in Edinburgh – where he won marathon bronze – and the first team member picked the past three Games as Australian chef de mission.
Moneghetti captured marathon gold in Victoria, Canada, in the 1994 Games.
Twenty years later, leapt from a press conference to run across Glasgow to watch Michael Shelley cross the finish and become the first Australian male to match the feat.
Moneghetti looked forward to his new mission on the CGA board, helping to lead an organisation he said had increasingly become progressive in operations.
“I’ll still have a mentoring role and I still engage a lot with athletes and coaches outside the Games,” Moneghetti said.
The 2022 Commonwealth Games are in Birmingham, England.
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