Mr Laurie Lawrence
Published Sun 01 Jan 2017
| SPORT | Swimming |
| YEAR INDUCTED | 2009 - General Member |
One of Australia’s great swimming coaches, he has been a fixture in the Australian Olympic team, first as a coach and later as a liaison and motivation officer.
He master-minded the Olympic gold medals of Jon Sieben (1984) and Duncan Armstrong (1988), and bronze medals won by Steve Holland (Montreal, 1976) and Julie McDonald (1988), plus the world-recording efforts of Tracey Wickham, among countless others.
His full Olympic tally from swimmers he directly assisted is 10 gold, 11 silver and 12 bronze medals, and 23 world records. Laurie also coached at the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane (1982) and Edingburgh (1986), and took Judy Young to two gold medals and two silver medals at the 1988 Seoul Paralympics.
A half back in the Australian rugby union team that toured New Zealand in 1964, he is a member of the Sport Australia Hall of Fame and was voted All Sports Coach of the Year 1988.
