Gary Mawson (born May 17, 1963 in Etobicoke, Toronto, Ontario, Canada) was a Canadian-born American darts player, who currently resides in Ft.Lauderdale, Florida, United States. He moved from Niagara Falls to Ohio to further increase his chances of success on the growing American darts circuit. He used the nickname The Mauler for his matches. Mawson's parents were born in England and as a result, he holds dual Canadian and British citizenship. Despite living in the United States for many years, Mawson is yet to become a US citizen.
He first entered the Canadian National Darts Championship in 1992 and reached the last 16. When the World Darts Council (now the Professional Darts Corporation - PDC) was first formed in 1994, players from the North American circuit were added to the 14 who broke away from the British Darts Organisation to bring the number of players up to the total required for a tournament. Mawson was among those who were selected.
He appeared at each PDC World Matchplay between 1995 and 2000 and also the PDC World Darts Championship between 1996 and 2000 - but the last 16 was his best performance. He did manage to reach the quarter-finals of the 1998 World Grand Prix which remained his best performance in a PDC event until he made it to the quarter finals of the 2007 Las Vegas Desert Classic.
As a result of his performances on the North American circuit including his Vegas quarter-final, he qualified for the inaugural Grand Slam of Darts in 2007 and was back at the World Championships in 2008 for the first time since 2000.
2008 also saw Mawson defeat Raymond van Barneveld in the US Open. He eventually reached Last 16 of the tournament, losing to Ronnie Baxter.
Mawson had a great run in the 2008 UK Open, reaching the Final where he was beaten by James Wade. It was a tournament Mawson nearly did not play in, as he left his passport in an American airport and had only arrived in the country on the day the tournament began. He defeated Darren Johnson and Mark Frost in the first two rounds, before beating Alex Roy, Mark Lawrence, Mark Dudbridge and Wayne Jones to reach the semi finals before upsetting reigning champion van Barneveld to reach his first major final. It was the second time that he had beaten van Barneveld in a matter of weeks.
During the tournament, Mawson became popular with British fans due to his resemblance to Liverpool manager Rafael Benítez. The resemblance caused chants such as 'Rafa give us a wave...' and 'Rafa Rafael, Rafa Rafael, Rafa Rafael, Rafael Benitez'. After the match, when asked in jest whether he should change his nickname to Rafa, he proclaimed that "Rafael Benitez is changing his name to Gary Mawson. The new manager of Liverpool is Gary Mawson".
Mawson played in the 2008 Grand Slam of Darts, which he earned a place in by reaching the final of the 2008 UK Open but lost out in the group stages.
He represented the United States with Darin Young in the 2012 PDC World Cup of Darts and reached the quarter-finals, where they were defeated by England 1–3, having beaten Germany in the second round. Mawson was responsible for the point picked up against England as he defeated 15-time World Champion Phil Taylor in his singles match.