- Lorraine Crapp
Lorraine Joyce Crapp (born 17 October 1938 in
Sydney, New South Wales ) is a former Olympicswimming champion representingAustralia . She competed in two Olympic Games — the1956 Summer Olympics and the1960 Summer Olympics .Lorraine was schooled in
Burwood, New South Wales at theMLC School . She had been a youthful protégé ofDawn Fraser 's mentor Harry Gallagher, but at age sixteen she switched to the coaching of Frank Guthrie. Under his guidance, she set her first of 23 world records in January 1954, and later that year she won theBritish Empire Games 110 yard and 440 yard titles. Along with Dawn Fraser, she set some world records during the 1956 Australian national championships, and both of them hit their best form during the winter training with the Olympic squad inTownsville, Queensland .Coming into the Games, Lorraine and Dawn shared the world 100 meter record, and Crapp held six other records over longer distances. In the Olympic 100 m final, Fraser beat Crapp in a close finish, with both swimmers below the world-record time.
Faith Leech made it a 1-2-3 victory for Australia. In the only other individual women’s freestyle event, the 400 meters, Crapp drew away from Fraser after two laps to win by a good margin in Olympic-record time. Dawn Fraser finished second to win the silver medal.Dawn Fraser,
Faith Leech ,Sandra Morgan , and Ms. Crapp, swimming in that order, set the world record to win the gold medal in the 4x100 meter relay. That gave Crapp and Fraser each a 1956 total of two gold medals and a silver medal. On the eve of her departure for the 1960 Rome Games, Crapp married Dr. Bill Thurlow, a medical officer working for the Australian team. She won a silver medal with the 4x100 meter relay team, and then she retired from competitve swimming.Some time after her retirement, Crapp and her husband did win the first prize in one of the Sydney Opera House Lotteries.
Mrs. Morgan was one of the eight flag-bearers of the
Olympic Flag at the opening ceremony of the2000 Summer Olympics inSydney ,Australia .References
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