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| Born | 10 August 1941 (age 83) York, England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Sport | Swimming | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Anita Lonsbrough, MBE (born 10 August 1941 in York [1] ), later known by her married name Anita Porter, is an English former swimmer from Great Britain who won a gold medal at the 1960 Summer Olympics.
At the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff she won gold in the 220 yards breaststroke and the medley relay.
At the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, on 27 August 1960, at the age of 19, she won gold in the 200 m breaststroke in 2:49.5 ahead of West Germany's Wiltrud Urselmann (2:50.0), setting a new world record time. [2] She was one of only two GB gold medallists that year, the other being Don Thompson in the 50 kilometre walk. [3]
She would also be the last British woman to win Olympic gold in swimming until Rebecca Adlington gained the gold in the 2008 Summer Olympics, 48 years later. [4]
At the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Perth she won three golds: 110 yards breaststroke; 220 yards breaststroke; and 440 yards individual medley.
She won the 1963 ASA National Championship 220 yards freestyle title, and was a five times winner of the National Championship 220 yards breaststroke title, which included a world record in the 1962 final. [5] [6] [7] [8] She also won the 440 yards medley title twice in 1963 and 1964. [9] [10]
In 1964 she competed in the Tokyo Olympic Games, finishing 7th in the 400 metres individual medley. She was also to compete in the 400 metres freestyle, but did not start. [11]
Lonsbrough was born in York to Stanley and Maud, and spent her childhood in India where her father, a Sergeant Major in the Coldstream Guards, was posted. [2] After the family’s return to Yorkshire, she was educated at St. Joseph's Catholic College, Bradford, a girls' direct grant grammar school. [12] She became a Treasurer's Office clerk employed at the Huddersfield Town Hall. [1] [2] She won her first gold medal for swimming in the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff. [2] Five world records and seven gold medals followed until her retirement in 1964. At one time she held the Olympic, Empire and European titles at the same time.
She is married to cycling commentator and former leading British professional track cyclist Hugh Porter; they met travelling to Tokyo for the 1964 Summer Olympics and married on Thursday 17 June 1965 at St Peter's Church, Huddersfield. [13] [14] [15] The couple live in Tettenhall, Wolverhampton. [16]
She taught swimming at the P.E. Dept at Ounsdale High School. Lonsbrough worked as a swimming commentator for BBC radio for many years alongside Peter Jones. She is currently a sports commentator and journalist for The Daily Telegraph , under the name Anita Lonsbrough-Porter.
She was the first woman winner of BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1962. [2] and was the last person to win the 'Sports Outlook' trophy Northern Sports Star of the year award in 1962.
She was awarded an MBE in 1963 for services to swimming.
Anita Lonsbrough was the first female flag bearer for Great Britain at the Summer Games when she carried the flag in the opening ceremony of the 1964 Summer Olympics, after previously turning down the role at the 1960 Summer Olympics. [16]
In 1983 she was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
Leisel Marie Jones, OAM is an Australian former competition swimmer and Olympic gold medallist. A participant in the 2000 Summer Olympics – at just 15 years old – and 2004 Summer Olympics, she was part of gold-medal-winning Australian team in the women's 4×100-metre medley relay at the Athens Games in 2004 and a gold medallist for 100-metre breaststroke in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
Lorraine Joyce Thurlow,, née Crapp, is a former Olympic swimming champion representing Australia. In world swimming history, Crapp earned a place as the first woman to break the five-minute barrier in the 400 m freestyle.
Terrence Stephen Gathercole, was an Australian breaststroke swimmer of the 1950s and 1960s, who won a silver medal in the 4x100-metre medley relay at the 1960 Summer Olympics. He later became a swimming coach, at one stage being the Australian female team coach for the 1964 Summer Olympics and guiding numerous breaststroke students to Olympic and World Championship gold medals. He also served as the president of Swimming Australia.
Ian Lovett O'Brien is an Australian breaststroke swimmer of the 1960s who won the 200 metre breaststroke at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo in world record time. He won five Commonwealth Games gold medals and claimed a total of nine individual and six relay titles at the Australian Championships, before retiring at the age of 21 due to financial pressures.
Kevin John Berry OAM was an Australian butterfly swimmer of the 1960s who won the gold medal in the 200-metre butterfly at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. He set twelve world records in his career.
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Dame Rebecca Adlington is an English former competitive swimmer who specialised in freestyle events in international competition. She won two gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in the 400-metre freestyle and 800-metre freestyle, breaking the 19-year-old world record of Janet Evans in the 800-metre final. Adlington was Britain's first Olympic swimming champion since 1988, and the first British swimmer to win two Olympic gold medals since 1908. After winning her first World Championship gold over 800 metres in 2011, along with silver in the 400 metres at the same meet, she won bronze medals in both the women's 400-metre and 800-metre freestyle events in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Adlington is one of the few people to have won Olympic Games, World Championships, European championships and Commonwealth Games gold medals.
The women's 400 metre freestyle event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 10–11 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China. The winning margin was 0.07 seconds which as of 2024 is the narrowest winning margin for this event in the Olympics.
Royston Isaac Romain was a British swimmer who competed in the Olympic games in 1948 in London.
Vivien Joan Haddon now Vivien Boyd is a former swimming representative from New Zealand.
David Frederick Hawkins was an Australian world-class competition swimmer who won three gold medals at the British Empire Games in 1950 and 1954. At the 1952 Summer Olympics he reached the semifinals of the 200-metre breaststroke event.
Gillian "Jill" Slattery is a female retired British swimmer.
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Heidi Earp is a female English former competitive swimmer who represented Great Britain in the Olympic Games and the European championships, and for England in the Commonwealth Games.
Linda Carol McGill, also known by her married name Linda Kruk, is an Australian former competition swimmer noted both for achievements at the Commonwealth Games and in long-distance swimming. At age 30, McGill set a record for the fastest and only swim around Hong Kong Island which stood for over 40 years, and still holds the record for the fastest swim in a counterclockwise direction.
Ross Murdoch is a Scottish competitive swimmer who has represented Great Britain at the Summer Olympics in 2016 and 2020, the FINA World Championships and the LEN European Championships, and Scotland at the Commonwealth Games from 2014 to the present. Between 2014 and 2016, Murdoch became a World, European and Commonwealth champion.
Elizabeth Mabel Church is a female British former swimmer.
Neil Nicholson is a British former swimmer. He competed in two events at the 1964 Summer Olympics.
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