The shock list of fresh drug charges facing fallen Olympic Golden Girl Chantelle Newbery – as she sinks to disturbing new depths, 20 years after being named Best of the Best
Chantelle Newbery, who won Australia's first Olympic diving gold medal at the 2004 Athens Games, has appeared in court again facing 19 fresh drug-related charges, continuing a years-long decline that has seen her attend court almost every month since August 2024. The 49-year-old faced Brisbane Magistrates Court accused of offences including drug possession, possessing pipes or utensils, stealing, driving under the influence and failing to appear in court, and has been remanded in custody without yet entering a plea.
Newbery, who was named Best of the Best by the Australian Institute of Sport in 2006, has a criminal record stretching back to 2014, mostly involving drugs and theft, and has previously tested positive for methamphetamine, amphetamine and buprenorphine. Her lawyer, Robert Burns, has kept her Olympic medals in his office to stop them being stolen by drug-using associates, and has described her as caught in a cycle of addiction she struggled to break free from after becoming suicidal and self-medicating following her retirement from diving in 2008.
- Olympic diving gold medallist faces 19 new drug-related charges.
- Chantelle Newbery has had monthly court dates since August 2024.
- Her decline follows years of addiction since retiring in 2008.
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Chantelle Newbery became Australia's first Olympic diving gold medallist at the 2004 Athens Games and was later celebrated by the Australian Institute of Sport as one of the country's finest athletes. In the years since retiring in 2008, she has struggled with drug addiction, a decline her lawyer has linked to a period of suicidal thoughts and self-medication following the end of her sporting career.
Since 2014 Newbery has built up a lengthy criminal record, mostly involving drug offences and theft, and has repeatedly appeared before Brisbane courts, including on an almost monthly basis since August 2024. She has previously tested positive for methamphetamine, amphetamine and buprenorphine, and her lawyer has taken the unusual step of keeping her Olympic medals in his office to prevent them being stolen by people associated with her drug use.
The case matters because it charts the fall of a national sporting hero whose achievement once stood as a landmark moment for Australian diving, and it highlights the broader difficulties former elite athletes can face with mental health and addiction after their competitive careers end.