Doctor Diana Robinson says ‘taking a leap of faith’ has seen her recognised in the King’s Birthday Honours List for service to sports medicine.
Castlecrag’s Diana Robinson says she is still ‘very surprised’ to have been made a member of the Order of Australia for her significant service to sports medicine and to anti-doping regulation.
An adjunct associate professor at the University of Notre Dame in Sydney, Diana is a surgeon who has over 26 years of clinical experience as a sport and exercise physician.
“It is fabulous to be acknowledged for many years of hard and generally unpaid work,” Diana says. “I was brought up in a family where my dad and mum both worked for many charities, and I was brought up with that attitude of giving back.”
While Dr Robinson has held several positions at the Australasian College of Sports Physicians, including as clinical training supervisor and chair of training, it is her work on anti- doping regulation which has been at the forefront of her work.
This started while she was the medical director of Triathlon Australia, a position she held for 10 years. “I basically brought the training for sports and exercise medicine into the twenty-first century,” she laughs softly. “I worked on the issues regarding athletes needing to take medications for therapeutic reasons that were banned. There is a big process that an athlete must go through when they need medication, and they must prove that they have a medical condition. Once we are satisfied that they have the condition, we approve them for a period.”
Dr Robinson’s motivation to keep up with her passion over the years has been ‘to make things better’. The qualified surgeon worked in paediatrics for many years before taking the plunge into sports medicine.
“I could have made a lot of money, but it is not about that. In the case of the College of Sport and Exercise Physicians, I worked 15 years to get our specialist accreditation,” she comments.
Juggling her workload and family has been challenging for Dr Robinson, and spite of the long hours spent on her work, she has two main achievements in her life: her two daughters.
“I am incredibly grateful that I’ve been recognised for tens of thousands of hours of hard work, blood, sweat, and tears. Maybe there were times when I spent too much time working and not enough time looking after my children. I carry that guilt a little bit.
“But if you want to ask me what my proudest achievements are, I’ll say ‘my two daughters’. One of them is an elite runner in the USA who also has a master’s of opera. The other one is finishing university with a high distinction average. Family is the most important for me.”
The key to success and overcoming challenges is always to act with integrity and stand up for what you believe, says Diana.
“You have to believe in yourself and do what’s right,” she says. “As a sport and exercise physician, I’ve had the opportunity to travel the world. I feel incredibly grateful for those opportunities that I wouldn’t have had If I hadn’t taken a risk back in 1991 and (decided) to study sports medicine.
“Sometimes you’ve just got to take that leap of faith because you never know where it takes you.”