Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Full name | Samantha Linette Pearl Riley | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
National team | Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Brisbane, Queensland | 13 November 1972|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 1.60 m (5 ft 3 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 59 kg (130 lb) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | Swimming | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Strokes | Breaststroke | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Club | Commercial Swimming Club | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
|
Samantha Linette Pearl Riley OAM (born 13 November 1972) is an Australian former competitive swimmer. She is of Aboriginal descent. [1] [2] She specialised in breaststroke and competed for Australia in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona and the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, winning three medals. She trained under Scott Volkers at the Commercial Swimming Club in Brisbane.[ citation needed ] She was the first Indigenous Australian to win an Olympic medal. [3]
Having been advised as a child to begin swimming to combat asthma [ citation needed ], the Brisbane schoolgirl broke into the Australian team for the 1991 World Championships in Perth, Western Australia, winning a silver medal in the medley relay.[ citation needed ] The following year, Riley won a bronze medal in the 100-metre breaststroke at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, as well as competing in the 200-metre event.
In 1994, Riley won both breaststroke events at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, British Columbia, and repeated the feat at the 1994 World Championships in Rome, Italy, setting a world record of 1 minute, 07.69 seconds in the 100-metre event.[ citation needed ] This prompted Swimming World magazine to name her as the Female World Swimmer of the Year.
Riley continued to sweep all before her in 1995, but arrived for the 1996 Summer Olympics under the cloud of a doping controversy. Her coach, Scott Volkers, had given her a pill for headaches which contained the banned substance dextropropoxyphene. [4] Riley tested positive at the world short course championships in Rio de Janeiro, [5] [6] and was only exonerated after her coach Volkers admitted to giving her a headache tablet which contained the banned substance.[ citation needed ] Riley told a news conference the drug was contained in headache medication she took by accident. [7] Under the pressure of the controversy, Riley performed well outside her personal best times. She collected a bronze in the 100m breaststroke. She also collected a silver medal in the 4x100-metre relay with Nicole Stevenson, Susie O'Neill and Sarah Ryan.
Riley never stood on the podium again as an individual at the world level, but maintained her position in the Australian squad. Many anticipated her to return to her peak at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, but a kidney infection disrupted her training.[ citation needed ] She retired shortly after being Australia's most successful female breaststroke swimmer in the 1990s.
At one stage during the mid-1990s, Riley was engaged to Norwegian Olympic champion speedskater Johann Olav Koss. She was also engaged at one time to rugby league player Julian O'Neill. [3]
The major arterial Samantha Riley Drive in Kellyville is named after her. The Australian Olympic Committee recognised her in their list of Australian Indigenous Olympians. [8]
In March 2023, it was reported that Riley had split from her husband of 22 years, former Ironman champion Tim Fydler. They have three children. [3]
Jodie Clare Henry, OAM is an Australian former competitive swimmer, Olympic gold medallist and former world-record holder.
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.
Brooke Louise Hanson, OAM is an Australian former competitive swimmer, Olympic gold medallist, world champion, and former world record-holder.
Penelope ("Penny") Heyns OIS is a South African former swimmer, who is best known for being the only woman in the history of the Olympic Games to have won both the 100 m and 200 m breaststroke events – at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games – making her South Africa's first post-apartheid Olympic gold medallist following South Africa's re-admission to the Games in 1992. Along with Australian champion Leisel Jones, Heyns is regarded as one of the greatest breaststroke swimmers.
Jessicah Lee Schipper is an Australian former competition swimmer and former world record holder for 200 metres butterfly. Specialising in the 100 and 200 metres butterfly, she won several gold medals at the Olympic Games and the World Championships between 2004 and 2009.
Hayley Jane Lewis, OAM, is an Australian former competitive swimmer best known for winning five gold medals and one bronze medal at the 1990 Commonwealth Games as a 15-year-old.
Nicole Dawn Livingstone, OAM is an Australian former competitive swimmer. Since retiring from swimming Livingstone has had careers as a television sports commentator and media presenter and as a sports administrator. She was known for a period as Nicole Stevenson, when she was married to Australian cyclist Clayton Stevenson.
Sarah Michelle Ryan, is an Australian former sprint freestyle swimmer, who won relay medals at three consecutive Olympics from the 1996 Summer Olympics to the 2004 Summer Olympics.
Helen Jennifer Denman is an Australian breaststroke swimmer of the 1990s, who won a silver medal in the 4×100-metre medley relay at the 1996 Summer Olympics. She won an individual silver medal in the 100-metre breaststroke at the 1998 World Aquatics Championships.
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.
Angela Kennedy is an Australian former butterfly swimmer of the 1990s, who won a silver medal in the 4×100-metre medley relay at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia.
Beverley Joy Whitfield was an Australian breaststroke swimmer of the 1970s, who won a gold medal in the 200-metre breaststroke at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. She was coached by Terry Gathercole and Don Talbot.
Philip John Rogers is a former breaststroke swimmer who competed in three consecutive Summer Olympics for Australia, starting in 1992. He was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder.
Ellinora Jillian Overton is an Australian former swimmer. She competed in the backstroke and medley swimmer at three consecutive Summer Olympics for Australia, starting in 1992.
Lauren van Oosten is a Canadian competition swimmer and a breaststroke specialist.
Rebecca Kate Brown is a former Australian breaststroke swimmer.
Brenton Scott Rickard is a retired breaststroke swimmer from Australia. He emerged at the international level in 2006, swimming at the Commonwealth games. He has captured multiple Olympic and World Championship medals, as well as world and Commonwealth records. During this period he was coached by Vince Raleigh.
Taylor McKeown is an Australian former competitive swimmer. She won a gold medal in the 200 metre breaststroke at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, and a silver medal at the 4 × 100 m medley relay during the 2016 Summer Olympics. McKeown also represented Australia in both the 100m breaststroke, and 200m breaststroke, qualifying fastest for the final and finishing in 5th in the 2016 Summer Olympics. She is a University of Sunshine Coast student.
Kaylee Rochelle McKeown is an Australian swimmer and triple Olympic gold medalist. She is the world record holder in the long course 50 metre backstroke, 100 metre backstroke and both the long course and short course 200 metre backstroke. She won gold in both the 100 metre and 200 metre backstroke, as well as the 4×100 metre medley relay at the 2020 Summer Olympics staged in Tokyo in 2021. In 2023, she was named as the "Best Female Swimmer of the Year" by World Aquatics, after sweeping gold in all three events of backstroke at all three World Cup legs, held in Berlin, Athens and Budapest in October, 2023.
Tatjana Schoenmaker is a South African swimmer specialising in breaststroke events. She is the former world record holder in the long course 200-metre breaststroke and is the African record holder in the long course and short course 100-metre breaststroke as well as the short course 200-metre breaststroke. She is a former African record holder in the long course 50-metre breaststroke and former South African record holder in the short course 50-metre breaststroke. She won the gold medal and set the world record in the 200-metre breaststroke and also won the silver medal in the 100-metre breaststroke at the 2020 Olympic Games.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)