1935 - 2020

Manoel Frederick ‘Manny’ Santos was born on January 30, 1935, in Sydney, New South Wales. Standing just 162cm tall, Santos was a powerfully built weightlifter and represented Australia at two Olympic Games and two Commonwealth Games during the 1950’s and 1960’s. He later became President of the NSW Amateur Weightlifting Association. Santos was also a 60 Year Member of the North Bondi Surf Life Saving Club (NBSLSC).

Santos first made his name as a teenager when he won gold at the 1953 Australian Junior Weightlifting Championships in the over-90kg category. Progressing to the senior level, Santos won the silver medal in the middle heavyweight (under-90kg) category at the 1956 Australian Championships before winning 5 consecutive national titles - in the same category from 1958-1960 and the light heavyweight (under-82.5kg) in 1961 and 1963. He was the bronze medallist at the 1964 Australian Championships in the under-90kg category.

In 1956, Santos represented Australia at the Melbourne Summer Olympic Games as a 21-year-old. Competing in the middle heavyweight class, he finished equal 9th, lifting 125kg in the military press, 110kg in the snatch and 150kg in the clean and jerk for a total combined weight of 385kg. He also competed at the 1960 Rome Olympics in the same category but failed to record a combined total. Santos’s best international performance was at the 1958 Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, Wales, where he won the middle heavyweight gold medal, lifting a total combined weight of 890 pounds (403.7kg). He also competed at the 1962 Commonwealth Games in Perth, Western Australia, but failed to total in the light heavyweight class.

Outside weightlifting, Santos was a much-loved figure in Bondi’s surf lifesaving community. He completed his Bronze Medallion - the core award to be a surf lifesaver in Australia - with NBSLSC in 1959/60 and was a member of the club’s March Past Team at surf carnivals in the early 1960’s. An enthusiastic Sunday surf race competitor himself, Santos joined the Board of Examiners in 1963/64, judging at surf carnivals and examining award participants. A wool classer by trade, Santos relocated to Perth in 1974 where he worked in the fabric industry for a decade. Santos died in Sydney on June 21, 2020, aged 85. He was due to receive his 60 Year Award at the NBSLSC’s annual general meeting that year.

Courtesy North Bondi Surf Life Saving Club and North Bondi Life Saving Club.