With the Olympics being called off this year, many of us have been reminiscing of the Aussie greats like Cathy Freeman, Ian Thorpe, and Leisel Jones. But the /r/Australia subreddit has just discovered that our most successful athlete of all time is in fact champion woodchopper David Foster, and the bloke is an absolute fkn unit and a half.
Foster, a Tasmania local, has held the title of World Woodchopping Champion for 21 consecutive years, and snatched three world records from America.
The ABC has called him “Australia’s most successful sporting champion”, and he’s also believed to be the only athlete ever to rack up over 1,000 titles to his name, something he achieved in 1998.
He’s also won the Australian Axeman of the Year award nine times in a row, snagged every major woodchopping title in Australia and New Zealand, and had the most wins at the Sydney Royal Easter Show Woodchop Competition.
If you’re into stats, here’s what peak performance looks like on paper: Foster is 6’4″ and weighs 159 kg, according to his website.
Oh, did we mention the man also publicly campaigned for marriage equality back in 2015?
Reddit, like the rest of us, are absolutely infatuated with our newfound national sporting icon.
Everything they mention about the man further elevates him beyond even legend status. While many have pointed out that he is indeed already somewhat of an icon in his native Tassie, that’s not enough, tbh.
With all this talk about rerunning the Sydney 2000 Olympics, how about rerunning some of Foster’s greatest woodchopping moments?
In the meantime, we’ll have to watch this instead.
