Shane Gould: biography and achievements
Olympic medallist and Australian swimmer Shane Elizabeth Gould was born on the 23rd of November 1956.
It looks like the athletes fate was connected to swimming as she was born on the first day of the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. She was born in the city of Sydney, Australia. When she was still a baby of 18 months, her parents took her to Fiji. As she grew up,
her intuited talent of swimming started to surface and when she was only six years of age she was claimed as one the most competent swimmer by her coaches and her trainers. She left an everlasting impact in Brisbane where she attended her college called the
Saint Peters Lutheran College. It is evident that Shane is still remembered in Brisbane from the fact that there is a sporting house named after the athletic beauty. Her inborn swimming skills were further developed and polished when she swam under the supervision
of two of the leading coached of Australia, Forbes and Ursula Carlile. Their assistant Tom Green also helped them teach Shane some precious swimming tactics.
She only took place in one Olympic Games and yet is on the list of the world’s best swimming champions of all time in the history of modern swimming. The Summer Olympics of 1972 took place in Munich, where Shane was the competitor of the Australian swimming
squad and won for her team three gold medals, a bronze and a silver medal. Each of the events in which she won the gold medals, she set a world record. The events in which Shane managed to clinch the gold medals were the 200 metre individual medley, 200 metre
freestyle and 400 metre freestyle races. The silver medal was won by her in the 800 metre freestyle and the bronze in 100 metre freestyle.
Her attributes that make her eligible to be on the list of the world’s best swimmers of all times also includes her being the only athlete, male or female, to have had a world record in races of freestyle stroke from a distance of 100 metre to 1500 metre
and that too at the same time. She was also the first ever female athlete to have a world record in the Olympic Games.
On the basis of her great achievements in the Olympic Games, she was given the opportunity to be the Olympic Torch bearer at the Summer Olympics 2000 that took place in Sydney, Australia. Shane was one of the runners of the final segment , and carried the
Torch all the way to where the Olympic Flame was lit.
Shane Gould officially retired from the sport at the age of sixteen but still continues to swim at Master Competitions that take place in Launceston, Tasmania and Sydney.
Her other achievements include numerous titles and awards from the year 1971 to 2001. In the year 1971, she was the Best Sportswoman in the World and the ABC Sportswoman of the Year. In the year that followed, the swimming beauty was again the ABC Sportswoman
of the Year and also the Australian of the Year. This is one of the most prestigious awards that are given to the individuals who render services to the nation and those who represent Australia Internationally and earn the country a lot of fame and respect.
This was the one award Shane was very proud of because it was not only because of her performance but because of her services to the country. Three years later, in 1981 she was presented the Order of the British Empire Award. Then there was a long pause
in her list of awards and achievements. The listed started again from the year 1994 when she got the Olympic Order. In the year 1995, she was again presented one of the most precious awards that are given to acknowledge personalities in Australia. This was
the Legend of Australian Sport Award. Five years later, in 2000 she was adorned with the Australian Sports Medal and a year later she received her final athletic achievement award that was the Centenary Medal.
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