Shane Gould

Australian Shane Gould was a swimmer of phenomenal talent who became the first woman to hold the world freestyle record at every distance from 100 metres to 1,500 metres. She achieved this remarkable feat in December 1971, just three weeks after her fifteenth birthday. During her brief career, she broke or equaled 11 world records, and won 14 individual titles at the Australian national championships. She was so dominant and so heralded in the lead-up to the 1972 Munich Olympics, that the American swimmers took to wearing T-shirts bearing their motto, “All that glitters is not Gould!” At the 1972 Olympic Games she won the 200 metre and 400 metre freestyle and 200 metre individual medley, each in a new world record time, and, in addition to her three gold medals, she took the silver in the 800 metres and the bronze in the 100 metre freestyle. In 1973, at only 16 years old, she retired but during her brief career she had become one of the legends of the sport. In 2000, at the Opening Ceremony of the Sydney Olympics, she was one of several Australian female Olympians who carried the Olympic Flag.