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Former Olympic Swimmer

Susie O'Neill is one of the most successful swimmers in Australian history. She holds a record 35 Australian titles, eight Olympic medals and a string of victories at international level. At one point Susie was Australia's only female world record holder, after breaking Mary T Meagher's 19-year-old record in the 200m butterfly.

The first Australian female swimming Olympic gold medallist since 1980, Susie was also the first Australian female to win the 200m butterfly.

Following her retirement from swimming at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, Susie was appointed to the IOC. Today she competes in triathlons, is ambassador for the Fred hollows Foundations and is in demand as a celebrity MC and speaker.

More about Susie O'Neill:

Susie narrowly missed selection for the 1988 Seoul Olympics when she was just fourteen years old, but went on to launch her incredible career in 1990 when she won gold and silver medals at the Commonwealth Games.

Remarkably over the ensuring ten years, Susie never arrived home without a medal from an international competition. Indeed, in 1996, she came home from the Atlanta Olympics with a gold, silver and bronze medal. Having done so, Susie received the honour of being Australia's most outstanding Olympic performer since Shane Gould in 1972.

 In September 1998 Susie was brilliant at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur where she won a record eight medals including six gold.  Susie won ten gold medals at Commonwealth Games, the most ever for an Australian while her six gold medals in Kuala Lumpur is a record for the most gold won at a single Commonwealth Games. In August, 1999 Susie competed at the Pan Pacific Championships at Sydney's Olympic venue.  She won six medals including two gold in the 200m butterfly and 200m freestyle.

At Sydney 2000 Susie affirmed herself as one of Australia's all time greats.

Susie has eight Olympic medals, including one gold and three-silver, equaling Dawn Fraser's Australian record of the biggest medal aggregate. At the closing of the Games, she was officially appointed by the IOC as one of a number of new delegates who are recent Olympians.

As a member of the IOC, Susie instilled her champion qualities into the Olympic movement. However, in 2004, when she became a mother for the first time, she made the decision to step down from the committee to spend more time with her family.

Susie O'Neill became an ambassador for the Fred Hollows Foundation.  She is also ambassador for Colgate Oral Care Month and has her own line of swimsuits sold in Target stores throughout Australia.

She commentated at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and was the Oceania athletes' representative on the International Olympic Committee to 2005, when she resigned her membership (and was replaced by Barbara Kendall).

On 10 March 2007, O'Neill was honoured by having the temporary swimming pool in the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne named after her for the duration of the 12th FINA World Championships, the site of the swimming events.