Olympic Media Guide 5/8/04 - sportcentric

WOMEN’S OLYMPIC FACTS●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●Only four women’s events have produced gold: 1912 (400m Freestyle Relay), 1924 (Lucy Morton in the 200mBreaststroke), 1956 (Judith Grinham in the 100m Backstroke) and 1960 (Anita Lonsborough in the 200mBreaststroke).The last woman to win a medal was Sarah Hardcastle with a bronze in the 800m Freestyle at Los Angeleson 3 August 1984. Since then only two women in individual events have even made an Olympic final –Sarah Hardcastle (8th) in the same event 12 years later and Alison Sheppard (7th) in the 50m Freestyle at Sydney.No Backstroker has won a medal since Natalie Steward took silver in the 100m in 1960.Only one woman Backstroker has made the final since 1968 – Beverley Rose finished 7th in the 100m in 1984.The last women’s Breaststroke medallist was in 1960 when Anita Lonsborough struck gold.Britain haven’t taken a Freestyle Relay medal since 1928 – then it was a silver in the 4x100m event.Britain’s best ever result in an individual Freestyle event was when 15 year old Sarah Hardcastle took silver inthe 400m in 1984, Sarah was also the youngest British swimming medallist of all time.Sharron Davies is the only Medley medallist, taking the silver in 1980 in the 400m in Moscow.Since 1976 only two women have qualified for the same final – in the 1984 400m Freestyle when Sarah Hardcastlegrabbed the silver and June Croft the bronze – the only time there have been two Britons on the medal podiumfor a single event since the women’s 100m Backstroke in 1956 – the men’s team haven’t achieved this since 1908.Fiona Kellock is the only British swimmer ever to swim in an Olympic Final on their birthday – she was 20 on theday of her appearance in the 400m Freestyle final at the Mexico Olympics and finished 7th.Judy Grinham in 1956 is Britain’s youngest swimming gold medallist at 17 years 275 days.The oldest British swimmer in an Olympic event was 36 year old Helen Slatter when she swam the leadoff leg inthe heats of the 400m Medley Relay in Atlanta in 1996.Alison Sheppard will be swimming at her 5th Olympic games, a British swimming record. Previously RobDerbyshire (1900-12), Henry Taylor (1906-20), Jack Hatfield (1912-28), Phylis Harding (1924-36), Suki Brownsdon(1980-92) and Mark Foster (1988-2000) had all jointly held the record with four. Karen Pickering will also beswimming at her 4th Olympics in Athens.Joyce Cooper holds the record for the most Olympic swimming medals by a British woman with four: silver inthe 400m Freestyle Relay in 1928, and three bronzes in the 100m Freestyle and 100m Backstroke also in 1928,plus the 400m Freestyle Relay four years later.June Croft swam in a British women’s swimming record eight Olympic finals, three in 1980 in Moscow andfive more 4 years later in Los Angeles.11