Anita Lonsborough
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| Olympic medal record | |||
| Women's Swimming | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold | 1960 Rome | 200 m breaststroke | |
Anita Lonsborough MBE (born August 10, 1941 in Huddersfield) is a former swimmer from Great Britain.
Prior to the Olympics, in the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, she won two gold medals, and held the world record for 200 metres breaststroke, but lost it to Germany's Wiltrud Urselmann.
At the 1960 Olympics in Rome, on 27 August 1960, at the age of 19, she defeated Wiltrud Urselmann in the 200 metres breaststroke final in a new world record time of 2:49.5. She was one of only two GB gold medallists that year, the other being Don Thompson in the 50 kilometre walk.
She was the first female flag bearer for Britain when she carried the flag in the 1964 Summer Olympics. She was also the first woman to swim the 200 metres breaststroke in under 2mins 50 seconds, when she beat Wiltrud Urselmann.
Lonsborough was a Treasurer's Office clerk employed at the Huddersfield Town Hall. She won her first Gold Medal for swimming in the 1958 Empire Games in Cardiff. Five world records and seven gold medals followed until her retirement in 1964. At one time she held the Olympic Gold Medal, Empire and European medals at the same time.
Lonsborough was the first woman winner of BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1962. She currently is a sports commentator and journalist for The Daily Telegraph, and lives with her husband, Hugh Porter, in Wolverhampton. She was awarded an MBE in 1963.
[edit] External links
- BBC Sport - "Rider's legends: Anita Lonsbrough"
- British Olympic Association - Rome 1960
- Olympic database
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Stirling Moss | BBC Sports Personality of the Year 1962 | Succeeded by Dorothy Hyman |
Olympic champions in women's 200 m breaststroke |
|---|
| 1924: Lucy Morton | 1928: Hilde Schrader | 1932: Clare Dennis | 1936: Hideko Maehata | 1948: Nel van Vliet | 1952: Éva Székely | 1956: Ursula Happe | 1960: Anita Lonsborough | 1964: Galina Prozumenshchikova | 1968: Sharon Wichman | 1972: Beverley Whitfield | 1976: Marina Kosheveya | 1980: Lina Kačiušytė | 1984: Anne Ottenbrite | 1988: Silke Hörner | 1992: Kyoko Iwasaki | 1996: Penny Heyns | 2000: Ágnes Kovács | 2004: Amanda Beard |
Categories: Wikipedia articles needing rewrite | English swimmers | Olympic swimmers of Great Britain | Swimmers at the 1964 Summer Olympics | Olympic gold medalists for Great Britain | BBC Sports Personality of the Year winners | People from Huddersfield | People from Wolverhampton | Members of the Order of the British Empire | 1941 births | Living people
