Anita Lonsbrough

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.[2] She was one of only two GB gold medallists that year, the other being Don Thompson in the 50 kilometre walk.[3]

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.[4]

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.

She won the 1963 ASA National Championship 220 yards freestyle title, and was a five times winner of the National Championship 220 yards breaststroke title, which included a world record in the 1962 final.[5][6][7][8] She also won the 440 yards medley title twice in 1963 and 1964.[9][10]

Lonsbrough was born in York to Stanley and Maud, and spent her childhood in India where her father, a Sergeant Major in the Coldstream Guards, was posted.[2] After the family’s return to Yorkshire, she was educated at St. Joseph's Catholic College, Bradford, a girls' direct grant grammar school.[11] She became a Treasurer's Office clerk employed at the Huddersfield Town Hall.[1][2] She won her first gold medal for swimming in the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff.[2] 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 on Thursday 17 June 1965 at St Peter's Church, Huddersfield.[12][13][14] 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.

Lonsborough Flats in Huddersfield was named after Lonsborough. It was demolished in 2016.

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.[2]

She was awarded an MBE in 1963 for services to swimming.

In 1983 she was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

• List of members of the International Swimming Hall of Fame
• List of Olympic medalists in swimming (women)
• World record progression 200 metres breaststroke
• World record progression 4 × 100 metres medley relay