Susie O'Neill

Susan O'Neill, AM (born 2 August 1973) is an Australian former competitive swimmer from Brisbane, Queensland, nicknamed "Madame Butterfly". She achieved eight Olympic Games medals during her swimming career.

Susie O'Neill
Personal information
Full nameSusan O'Neill
National team Australia
Born (1973-08-02) 2 August 1973
Mackay, Queensland, Australia
Height1.71 m (5 ft 7 in)
Weight63 kg (139 lb)
Sport
SportSwimming
StrokesButterfly, freestyle
ClubCommercial Swimming Club

Early life

Susan (Susie) O'Neill was born on 2 August 1973 in Mackay, Queensland to mother, Trish and father, John. She has two siblings, a brother and a sister. Her family moved to Brisbane and she was educated at Lourdes Hill College (LHC) in Hawthorne.[1] Whilst at LHC, O'Neill excelled in sport, setting school records in 50 m and 100 m butterfly, freestyle, and backstroke. She was also LHC cross country champion and set records for the 13 years 800 m in 1986 and for the 15 years 400 m in 1988 for athletics. All these records still stood as of 2011.[1]

Swimming career

O'Neill won the 200m butterfly at the 1996 Summer Olympics and the 200m freestyle at the 2000 Summer Olympics. She has won 35 Australian titles, eight Olympic medals, and fellow Australians Ian Thorpe and Leisel Jones, only, exceed her medals cache.

At her international debut at the 1990 Commonwealth Games, she won two medals (gold and silver), and continued to add to her medals cache at every international competition until her final Olympics. In front of a home crowd at the 2000 Olympic Games Trials she broke the 19-year standing world record of another "Madame Butterfly", Mary T. Meagher, in the 200m butterfly, but was beaten in an upset at the 2000 Olympic Games by American Misty Hyman.

She trained under Bernie Wakefield until 1994, then Scott Volkers at the Commercial Swimming Club in Brisbane.

Post swimming career

O'Neill is an ambassador for the Fred Hollows Foundation.[2][3]

She provided commentary at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. She was the Oceania athletes' representative on the International Olympic Committee from 2000 to 2005. When she resigned her membership she was replaced by Barbara Kendall.[4]

On 10 March 2007 during the 12th FINA World Championship, O'Neill was honoured by the dedication of the temporary swimming pool in the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne named after her for the duration of the competition.

O'Neill is a co-host on Nova 106.9's breakfast radio show Ash, Kip, Luttsy & Susie.

On 14 February 2018, O'Neill released a single entitled "My Heart Goes Boom".[5]

In May 2019, O'Neill was announced as Australia's joint Deputy Chef de Mission for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo,[6] with fellow Olympians, Evelyn Halls and Kim Brennan.

Honours and awards

Personal life

O'Neill married Cliff Fairley, who works as an ophthalmologist, in 1998. They have two children.

See also

Philanthropy

O'Neil and her husband help generously utilize their activism help to raise awareness for the Fred Hollows Foundation, becoming one of its distinguished ambassadors.[17] The Fred Hollows Foundation is an international non-profit organization that educates surgeons on how to cure avoidable blindness within undeserved communities and countries. [17]

References

  1. "Role model for women". The Catholic Leader. Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane. 27 March 2011. Retrieved 11 May 2013.
  2. http://www.hollows.org/
  3. Susan O'Neill - World Fastest, Australia's Best
  4. "AOC Office Bearers and Australian IOC Members". Australian Olympic Committee website. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  5. ""My Heart Goes Boom" (single)". iTunes Australia. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  6. "Key appointments to leadership teams for Tokyo 2020 and other games announced". olympics.com.au. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
  7. "Australian Sport Awards". Confederation of Australian Sport. Archived from the original on 8 February 2015. Retrieved 4 August 2015.
  8. "Susan O'Neill OAM". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Retrieved 11 May 2013.
  9. Zuk, T. "1998 People's Choice Awards". Australian Television Information Archive. Retrieved 11 May 2013.
  10. Zuk, T. "1999 People's Choice Awards". Australian Television Information Archive. Retrieved 11 May 2013.
  11. "Susan O'Neill". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Retrieved 11 May 2013.
  12. Gordon, Harry. "Susie O'Neill". Australian Olympic Committee website. Retrieved 4 August 2015.
  13. "Susie O'Neill". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Retrieved 11 May 2013.
  14. "Susie O'Neill". Sport Australia Hall of Fame. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
  15. "Ms Susan O'Neill OAM". Queensland Sport Hall of Fame. qsport.org.au. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
  16. Bligh, Anna (10 June 2009). "PREMIER UNVEILS QUEENSLAND'S 150 ICONS". Queensland Government. Archived from the original on 24 May 2017. Retrieved 24 May 2017.
  17. "Susie O'Neill is seeing life differently | Atlantic Philanthropies". The Atlantic Philanthropies. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
Records
Preceded by
Mary T. Meagher
Women's 200 metre butterfly
world record holder (long course)

17 May 2000 4 August 2002
Succeeded by
Otylia Jędrzejczak
Preceded by
Incumbent
Women's 200 metre butterfly
world record holder (short course)

17 February 1999 18 January 2004
Succeeded by
Yang Yu
Awards
Preceded by
Incumbent
Swimming World
World Pacific Rim Swimmer of the Year

1995
Succeeded by
Le Jingyi
Preceded by
Samantha Riley
Swimming World
Pacific Rim Swimmer of the Year

1998 2000
Succeeded by
Petria Thomas
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