Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Full name | Judith Brenda Grinham | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nickname(s) | "Judy" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
National team | Great Britain | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Neasden, England [1] | March 5, 1939||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | Swimming | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Strokes | Backstroke, freestyle | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Club | Hampstead Ladies SC [1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
|
Judith Brenda Grinham MBE (born 5 March 1939), also known by her married name Judith Roe or also by her former married name Judith Rowley, is an English former competitive swimmer who represented Great Britain in the Olympics and European championships, and competed for England in the Commonwealth Games. Grinham is an Olympic gold medallist, Commonwealth and European champion, and former world record-holder. In 1956 and 1958 she was chosen as Great Britain's Sportswoman of the Year. [2] In 1958 she became the first woman in any sport to hold/win Olympic, European and Commonwealth titles. [1]
Grinham was born in the London suburb of Hampstead and grew up in Neasden. She studied at the Convent of Jesus & Mary, Harlesden, London NW10.
She married Pat Rowley [1] [3] in Neasden in 1960, in St. Catherine's Church. They had two children, Keith (born in June 1961) [4] and Alison (born in December 1962). In 1977 she divorced and remarried Michael Roe in 1979, (who had 4 children). She has five grandchildren and 5 step-grandchildren. [5]
Grinham competed in the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia, winning the 100-metre backstroke, setting a world record of 1:12.9. She became the first Briton to win an Olympic swimming gold since Lucy Morton in 1924. [1]
Grinham competed in the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, Wales, and won the 100-metre backstroke in 1:11.9. She went on to win a second gold medal as a member of the winning British team in the 4×100-metre medley team at the 1958 European Championships in Budapest, Hungary, and won an individual gold in the 100-metre backstroke. She became the first woman in any sport to hold Olympic, Commonwealth and European gold medals at the same time. [1] She won the 1958 ASA National Championship 110 yards freestyle title, [6] the 1957 ASA National Championship 220 yards freestyle title [7] and the 110 yards backstroke title three times (1955, 1956, 1958). [8] [9] [10]
Grinham retired from competitions in 1959. The same year she appeared as a P.T. instructor in the Associated British Technicolor wartime service comedy film Operation Bullshine , alongside stars Donald Sinden, Barbara Murray and Carole Lesley, but never made another film.
Grinham was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame as an "Honour Swimmer" in 1981. [2]
In 2007, she was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the Queen's Birthday Honours list, 50 years after winning gold in Melbourne.
Anita Lonsbrough,, later known by her married name Anita Porter, is a former swimmer from Great Britain who won a gold medal at the 1960 Summer Olympics.
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.
John James Monckton was an Australian backstroke swimmer who won a silver medal in the 100-metre event at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. Although he set multiple world records, he never won an Olympic gold medal.
Judith Joy Davies was an Australian former backstroke swimmer of the 1940s and 1950s, who won a bronze medal in the 100-metre backstroke at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. At the national level, she won 17 Australian championships in freestyle, backstroke and medley swimming. She was well known after her swimming career as a long-time sporting journalist for the Melbourne newspapers The Argus and The Sun-News Pictorial.
Sarah Jane Price is a female English former backstroke swimmer.
Arthur Cusack was an Australian Olympic swimming coach in the 1950s and 1960s.
Andrew David Jameson is an English sports commentator and former competitive swimmer. Active as an elite swimmer in the mid to late 1980s he represented Great Britain in two consecutive Summer Olympics, the FINA World Championships, LEN European Championships, as well as England in the Commonwealth Games. At his peak between 1986 and 1988 he won the gold medal in 100 metre butterfly at the 1986 Commonwealth Games, the 1987 European Aquatics Championships and the 1987 Summer Universiade, as well as the 100 metre freestyle gold at the same Universiade. Winning the bronze medal at the 1986 World Aquatics Championships, Jameson's career in the pool culminated in winning the bronze medal in the 1988 Summer Olympics, his second and final Olympic Games.
Ian MacIntosh Black is a Scottish former competitive swimmer who represented Great Britain in international competition, including the Olympics and European championships, and Scotland in the Commonwealth Games, during the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Linda Kay Ludgrove is a retired English backstroke swimmer.
Carin Alice Cone, also known by her married name Carin Cone Vanderbush, is an American former competition swimmer, Olympic medalist, and former world record-holder.
Gemma Mary Spofforth is an English former competition swimmer who represented Great Britain in the Olympics, FINA world championships and European championships, and England in the Commonwealth Games. Spofforth is the former world record-holder and former world champion in the 100-metre backstroke, and won a total of eight medals in major international championships.
Margaret Edwards is an English former competitive swimmer.
Natalie Alwyne Steward is a former British Olympic swimmer.
William John Brockway was a male Welsh competitive swimmer.
Wendy Elizabeth Hogg née Wendy Cook is a female retired Canadian swimmer.
Graham Sykes was an English competitive swimmer.
Christine Lorraine Gosden, also known by her married name Christine Parfect, is a female retired British swimmer.
Neil McKechnie was a British swimmer. He competed in two events at the 1956 Summer Olympics.
Marrion Douglass Roe was a New Zealand swimmer who represented her country at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games and the 1956 Summer Olympics.
Judith Patricia 'Pat' Symons (1935-1987), was a female swimmer who competed for England.