Anita Lonsbrough
| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Women's swimming | ||
Competitor for  Great Britain |
||
| Olympic Games | ||
| Gold | 1960 Rome | 200 m breaststroke |
| European Championships | ||
| Gold | 1962 Leipzig | 200 m breaststroke |
| Silver | 1958 Budapest | 200 m breaststroke |
| Silver | 1962 Leipzig | 400 m individual medley |
| Bronze | 1958 Budapest | 4×100 m medley |
| Bronze | 1962 Leipzig | 4×100 m medley |
Competitor for  England |
||
| British Empire and Commonwealth Games | ||
| Gold | 1958 Cardiff | 220 yd breaststroke |
| Gold | 1958 Cardiff | 4×110 yd medley |
| Gold | 1962 Perth | 110 yd breaststroke |
| Gold | 1962 Perth | 220 yd breaststroke |
| Gold | 1962 Perth | 440 yd individual medley |
| Silver | 1962 Perth | 4×110 yd medley |
Anita Lonsbrough MBE (born 10 August 1941 in York[1]) is a former swimmer from Great Britain who won a gold medal at the 1960 Summer Olympics.
Contents |
Swimming career [edit]
At the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff she won gold in the 220 yards breaststroke and the medley relay.
At the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, on 27 August 1960, at the age of 19, she won gold in the 200 m breaststroke in 2:49.5 ahead of West Germany's Wiltrud Urselmann (2:50.0), setting a new world record time. She was one of only two GB gold medallists that year, the other being Don Thompson in the 50 kilometre walk.[2]
She would also be the last British woman to win Olympic gold in swimming until Rebecca Adlington gained the gold in the 2008 Summer Olympics, 48 years later.[3]
At the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Perth she won three golds: 110 yards breaststroke; 220 yards breaststroke; and 440 yards individual medley.
At the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo she came seventh in the 400 m individual medley
Biography [edit]
Lonsbrough was a Treasurer's Office clerk employed at the Huddersfield Town Hall. She won her first gold medal for swimming in the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff. Five world records and seven gold medals followed until her retirement in 1964. At one time she held the Olympic, Empire and European titles at the same time.
She is married to cycling commentator and former leading British professional track cyclist Hugh Porter; they met travelling to Tokyo for the 1964 Summer Olympics and married in 1965.[4][5] The couple live in Wolverhampton, and, after a spell teaching swimming including the P.E. Dept at Ounsdale High School, she is currently a sports commentator and journalist for The Daily Telegraph, under the name Anita Lonsbrough-Porter.
Honours [edit]
Anita Lonsbrough was the first female flag bearer for Great Britain at the Summer Games when she carried the flag in the opening ceremony of the 1964 Summer Olympics. She was the first woman winner of BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1962.
She was awarded an MBE in 1963 for services to swimming.
In 1983 she was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
See also [edit]
References [edit]
- ^ 50 years ago today, Huddersfield swimmer Anita Lonsbrough received her Olympic gold medal, Huddersfield Examiner, Friday, 27 August 2009, 14:58 GMT
- ^ Simon Burnton (June 12, 2012). "50 stunning Olympic moments No38: Don Thompson takes walking gold". The Guardian.
- ^ Adlington snatches swimming gold, BBC Sport, Monday, 11 August 2008, 09:04 GMT
- ^ Andy Jones (2008-03-06). "STAFFORDSHIRE AND SHROPSHIRE WITH HUGH PORTER". Cycling Weekly. Retrieved 2008-08-17.
- ^ Nigel Ringland (2008-08-12). "No chance to relax in the Water Cube. The Beijing Olympics". Irish News (Belfast). Retrieved 2008-08-17.
External links [edit]
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Stirling Moss |
BBC Sports Personality of the Year 1962 |
Succeeded by Dorothy Hyman |
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- English swimmers
- Olympic swimmers of Great Britain
- Swimmers at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games
- Swimmers at the 1960 Summer Olympics
- Swimmers at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games
- Swimmers at the 1964 Summer Olympics
- Olympic gold medalists for Great Britain
- BBC Sports Personality of the Year winners
- People from Huddersfield
- Members of the Order of the British Empire
- 1941 births
- Living people
- Commonwealth Games gold medallists for England
- Commonwealth Games silver medallists for England
- Former world record holders in swimming
- Olympic medalists in swimming
- Female breaststroke swimmers
- Female medley swimmers
- European Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming
