Carlile Swimmers will once again be at the Olympics, the greatest sporting event on earth. And many of them started with us as babies and toddlers.
The opening ceremony is Friday night, but you won’t see Carlile Swimming Ryde’s Olivia Wunsch marching. Liv like the entire swimming team will rest, the next morning she compete in the 4×100 metre freestyle relay.
It’s a crack team with a huge job of continuing an amazing run. Australia has won the event at the last three successive Olympics. Liv, who won five gold medals at last year’s Junior World Championships will be in a team that includes Emma McKeon, Mollie O’Callaghan, Shayna Jack, Med Harris and Bronte Campbell.
Liv started with Carlile in the little pool that Forbes and Ursula built in their backyard more than 60 years ago. It’s some story you can find out more here
The same day Carlile Swimming Teacher Sienna Hearn and former Carlile Swimmer and teacher Keesja Gofers will begin their campaign for the Australian Water Polo team when the Stingers take on China.
The Stingers recently swept a three match series against the Chinese and have also recently had wins against other Olympic rivals, Greece, Hungary, Italy and Spain. There’s Sienna as a young swimmer.
Sienna (far right) after an Olympic Qualifying tournament in South America.
Another former Carlile Swimmer and teacher, Se-Bom Lee will be competing in his second Olympics. Se-Bom also learnt to swim as a Toddler with Carlile and qualified for Tokyo in Carlile colours. In Tokyo Se-Bom swam the 200im and 400im, in Paris he will compete in the 200m backstroke.
These swimmers carry a legacy started by Forbes Carlile when he became the first Australian Olympic Swimming coach in 1948. It’s a history of world records and Olympic gold medallists which includes the incomparable Shane Gould. Carlile’s first Olympic Gold Medallist was John Davies who won the 200m breaststroke in world record time in Helsinki in 1952. He did it swimming a version of butterfly with a breaststroke kick. You can find out more here.
In all Carlile has produced more than 250 Australian Open championship gold medallists, 50 Australian representatives and eight world record holders. The great is no doubt Shane Gould.
Shane is the only swimmer to hold every freestyle world record from 100m to 1500m at the same time, she also held the 200m IM world record. In Munich, under the coaching of Ursula Carlile, Shane won five individual medals. A feat than remains unmatched by any Australian.
Her haul included three golds, all in world record time. For good measure another Carlile kid Gail Neal also won gold and broke the world record in the 400m IM.
From “babies to Olympians” if you want your child to learn to swim well and love the water, join us.
