Robert Ian Brightwell MBE (27 October 1939 – 6 March 2022) was a British track and field athlete and silver medallist.

[4] Brightwell was born in Rawalpindi, British Raj (now part of Pakistan), but moved to the UK with his family in 1946 and grew up in Donnington, Telford, Shropshire.

[5] He gained his athletic training at Shrewsbury Technical College and went on to become a sportsmaster at Tiffin Boys' School in Surrey, England.

He narrowly failed to reach the final of the individual 400 metres at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, finishing 4th in his semi-final in a hand-timed 46.1.

[citation needed][7] Running the final stage in the men's 4 x 400 metres relay, he passed Wendell Mottley of Trinidad and Tobago to finish second to Henry Carr of the US.