Former Olympic swimmer Hamid Mobarrez was severely injured in a car crash, and his wife was killed, in January in New South Wales, Australia. A 39-year old man was charged with dangerous driving occasioning death, 2 counts of dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm, negligent driving occasioning death and negligent driving occasioning grievous bodily harm.
Mobarrez’s wife, Tamara, and their 5-year old son were also in the car. Tamara was unable to be revived and died at the scene of the accident. The couple’s child suffered head and facial injuries and was flown to Sydney Children’s Hospital to be admitted to their intensive care unit. He was released and is “recovering well.” Hamid Mobarrez had to be cut out of the car. His injuries included a crushed thigh and shattered foot.
The accident happened just days before the death of actress Jessica Falkholt, who on Boxing Day was in an accident that killed her parents and younger sister. She succumbed to her injuries 3 weeks later.
A fundraiser was launched to support Hamid and his son Eli-Luca, which has raised over $163,000 as of posting.
Mobarrez is the head swim coach at Kinkoppal Rose Bay School in Australia. In 2000, he was the only swimmer to represent Iran at the Olympics where he finished 65th in the 100 free in a time of 54.12.
Swimming New South Wales released the following statement calling Mobarrez a “highly regarded” coach.
Swimming NSW Statement
On Thursday 11th January, highly regarded NSW Coach Hamid Mobarrez (from the KRB Aquatics Swimming Club) and his family were involved in a car accident near Mollymook where Hamid was conducting a camp for his swimmers.
Tragically, Hamid’s wife Tamara passed away at the scene of the accident. Both Hamid and his son Eli were air lifted to separate hospitals where they have undergone surgery and their condition is still being assessed.
Swimming NSW is devastated by this news and at this extremely difficult time our thoughts are with their families and friends.
We thank the swimming community for the many enquiries and offers for support that we have already received and are sure will be needed in the very near future. Over the next few days we will respect the privacy of the Mobarrez family and therefore further announcements regarding support and assistance will be forthcoming.
Our love and deepest sympathy are with Hamid and Eli at this time and we offer our sincere condolences with the loss of their beautiful wife and mother.
For those that wish to make a donation, the link to the Go Fund Me page set up to assist the family can be found here: https://www.gofundme.com/for-hamid-mobarrez-and-his-boy
Update: Swimming NSW is overwhelmed with the support from the Swimming community for the Mobarrez family. Our sincerest thanks go out to everyone that has sent messages of support and made a donation to the Go Fund me page, we are sure Hamid and his family will be forever grateful.
There is good news to report with Eli now out of Intensive Care and recovering well. Hamid is currently still in Intensive Care but his doctors hope to move him out of Intensive Care in the next few days.
We will provide further updates when we can.
Thank you for sharing this article swimswam! Prayers for a speedy recover.