Robert Abernethy was an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n swimmer specialising in freestyle

Freestyle swimming

Freestyle is an unregulated swimming style used in swimming competitions according to the rules of FINA. The front crawl stroke is almost universally used during a freestyle race, as this style is generally the fastest...

 sprint events. He is best known for winning the bronze medal at the inaugural 1993 FINA Short Course World Championships

1993 FINA Short Course World Championships

The 1st FINA Short Course World Championships were held in Palma de Mallorca, Spain from December 2 until December 5, 1993. PR China won the most gold medals, although all of their ten came in the women's events, with Le Jingyi winning two individual and three relay events to travel home with five...

 in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. He also competed for his native country at the 1995 Summer Universiade

1995 Summer Universiade

The 1995 Summer Universiade, also known as the XVIII Summer Universiade, took place in Fukuoka, Japan.-Emblem:The symbol mark is a motif of "U", expressing passion and energy in the flickering flames of a burning torch...

 in Fukuoka, Japan.

Amongst many achievements over his swimming career representing Carlile, the University of Arizona

University of Arizona

The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...

 and Australia, Abernethy was the first Australian to break the 22 seconds barrier for 50m freestyle short course (25 m), won a NCAA title and was instrumental in establishing the Australian Swimmers’ Association.

Abernethy was appointed as the Operations Manager of the Hyundai A-League for the Football Federation of Australia. Since retiring from swimming he worked for the who’s who of sporting organisations including Victorian Swimming, SOCOG, 2001 Goodwill Games

Goodwill Games

The Goodwill Games was an international sports competition, created by Ted Turner in reaction to the political troubles surrounding the Olympic Games of the 1980s...

, 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Committee, 2002 Commonwealth Games

2002 Commonwealth Games

The 2002 Commonwealth Games were held in Manchester, England from 25 July to 4 August 2002. The XVII Commonwealth Games was the largest multi-sport event ever to be held in the UK, eclipsing London's 1948 Summer Olympics in numbers of teams and athletes participating.After the 1996 Manchester...

 and the Australian Rugby Union

Australian Rugby Union

The Australian Rugby Union is the governing body of rugby union in Australia. It was founded in 1949 and is a member of the International Rugby Board the sport's governing body. It consists of eight member unions, representing each state and territory...

.