Duke Paoa Kahinu Mokoe Hulikohola Kahanamoku was a Hawaiian competition swimmer who popularized the sport of surfing. A Native Hawaiian, he was born to a minor noble family less than three years before the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. He lived to see the territory's admission as a state, and became a United States citizen. He was a five-time Olympic medalist in swimming, winning medals in 1912, 1920 and 1924.
A relay race is a racing competition where members of a team take turns completing parts of racecourse or performing a certain action. Relay races take the form of professional races and amateur games. Relay races are common in running, orienteering, swimming, cross-country skiing, biathlon, or ice skating. In the Olympic Games, there are several types of relay races that are part of track and field. Relay race, also called Relay, is a track-and-field sport consisting of a set number of stages (legs), usually four, each leg run by different members of a team. The runner finishing one leg is usually required to pass the next runner a stick-like object known as a "baton" while both are running in a marked exchange zone. In most relays, team members cover equal distances: Olympic events for both men and women are the 400-metre and 1,600-metre relays. Some non-Olympic relays are held at distances of 800 m, 3,200 m, and 6,000 m. In the less frequently run medley relays, however, the athletes cover different distances in a prescribed order—as in a sprint medley of 200, 200, 400, 800 metres or a distance medley of 1,200, 400, 800, 1,600 metres.
Grant George Hackett OAM is an Australian swimmer, most famous for winning the men's 1500 metres freestyle race at both the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. This achievement has led him to be regarded as one of the greatest distance swimmers in history. He also collected a gold medal in Sydney for swimming in the heats of the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay. He was well regarded for his versatility, and has held the long course world records in the 200 m, 800 m, and 1500 m freestyle events. He dominated the 1500 m event for a decade, being undefeated in the event in finals from 1996 until the 2007 World Aquatics Championships. In total, he has won 10 long-course world championship gold medals.
Inflatable Rescue Boat (IRB) racing, is a surf sport in which surf lifesaving club teams race Inflatable Rescue Boats. IRB racing competitions are held in various countries, including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, Germany, and France.
Brighton is a coastal suburb of Adelaide, South Australia, situated between Seacliff and Glenelg and aside Holdfast Bay. Some notable features of the area are the Brighton-Seacliff Yacht Club, the Brighton Surf Lifesaving Club, the Brighton Jetty, and a beach. The Windsor Theatre, constructed in 1925, is a long-standing institution.
Tamarama is a beachside suburb, eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Tamarama is 6 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Waverley Council.
Open water swimming is a swimming discipline which takes place in outdoor bodies of water such as open oceans, lakes, and rivers. Competitive open water swimming is governed by the International Swimming Federation (FINA), except when it is part of Multi-sport events, which are governed by World Triathlon.
Semaphore is a northwestern suburb of Adelaide in the Australian state of South Australia. It is located on the Gulf St Vincent coastline of the Lefevre Peninsula about 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) from the Adelaide city centre.
The sport of Ironman was developed in 1964 in Australia by Valentine Trainor to combine the four main disciplines of surf lifesaving into a single race; swimming, board paddling, ski paddling and running. The sport should not be confused with Ironman triathlon. It is typically run as a single event as a part of a surf life saving carnival, although it can be run as a sport in its own right. Internationally it is sometimes called Oceanman.
The Rottnest Channel Swim is an annual open water swimming event from Cottesloe Beach through Gage Roads to Rottnest Island, off the coast of Western Australia, near Perth.
Winter swimming is the activity of swimming during the winter season, typically in outdoor locations or in unheated pools or lidos. In colder countries, it may be synonymous with ice swimming, when the water is frozen over. This requires either breaking the ice or entering where a spring prevents the formation of ice. It may also be simulated by a pool of water at 0 °C (32 °F), the temperature at which water freezes.
Andrew Murray "Boy" Charlton was an Australian freestyle swimmer of the 1920s and 1930s who won a gold medal in the 1500 m freestyle at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. He set five world records and also won a further three silver and one bronze medal in his Olympic career.
Cottesloe Beach is a popular beach in Cottesloe and one of the most iconic locations of Western Australia. The enduring popularity of the beach is the result of combination of factors including proximity to metropolitan Perth, accessibility by train, shelter from strong summer breezes and presence of offshore reefs making it a relatively safe swimming location. It has been recognised by the Heritage Council as a place of cultural significance since 2005. Since the beginning of the twentieth century a succession of bathing structures and hotels have been constructed in prominent locations overlooking the beach. The current beach-front structure was constructed in 1996 and is known as the Indiana Teahouse. Designed in a neotraditional architectural style it has become an internationally recognised landmark of Perth. The beach hosts the popular Rottnest Channel Swim, and Sculpture by the Sea. It attracts around 600,000 visitors per year.
Robert Steven Genter is an American former competition swimmer and three-time Olympic medalist. He was a freestyle specialist who earned a gold medal as a member of the winning U.S. team in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. He also won silver medals at the Munich Olympics in the 200-meter and 400-meter freestyle events.
Melinda Gainsford-Taylor is a retired Australian athlete, who specialised in sprint events.
The Lorne Pier to Pub is an annual, 1.2-km open water swimming race held in January at Lorne, a town located on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia.
Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water. Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic sports, with varied distance events in butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle, and individual medley. In addition to these individual events, four swimmers can take part in either a freestyle or medley relay. A medley relay consists of four swimmers who will each swim a different stroke, ordered as backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle.
Jarrod Poort is an Australian former competitive swimmer and two-time Olympian. Poort specialising in distance freestyle and open-water swimming competing at the international level from 2012 - 2017 on the Australian swim team.
Lani Pallister is an Australian competitive swimmer. She is a world record holder in two sports, with a world record in swimming, the short course 4×200-metre freestyle relay, and world records in life saving for the youth age group in the 100-metre rescue medley and 200-metre super lifesaver. She holds the Oceanian, Commonwealth, and Australian records in the short course 1500-metre freestyle and the Australian record in the short course 800-metre freestyle. She is the first female World Short Course champion in the 1500-metre freestyle, winning the inaugural event for women at the 2022 edition. Over the course of the 2022 World Short Course Championships, she won the gold medal in each of the four events she contested.
Kyle Lee is an Australian open water swimmer. At the 2022 World Aquatics Championships, he placed fifth in the 25 kilometre open water swim and eighth in the 5 kilometre open water swim. As part of the 2022 Marathon Swim World Series, he won two silver medals in the 4×1500 metre open water team relay. He is the 2022 Rottnest Channel Swim winner.
