Laurie Lawrence

Laurie Joseph Lawrence (born October 14, 1941) [Australia 1992 Olympic Games Barcelona Spain Team Handbook] , is an Australian swimming coach. He was a Australia national rugby union team member in 1964.

Lawrence coached Australian elite swimmers at the 1982 Commonwealth Games at Brisbane, the 1986 Commonwealth Games at Edinburgh, as well as Olympic Games at Los Angeles in 1984, Seoul in 1988 and Barcelona in 1992. His coaching achievements include 10 gold, 11 silver and 12 bronze medals from swimmers he has directly assisted at Olympic level. Swimmers he has coached boast 23 world records. His best known protégés include, Steve Holland, Tracey Wickham, Jon Sieben and Duncan Armstrong.

Lawrence was part of the Australian Olympic team at Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 Olympic Games with a brief to unite, inspire, motivate and relax the entire team. He will be in a similar role at the 2008 Olympic Games at Beijing. At the 2008 Olympics, Lawrence has fulfilled the role of fun maker and motivator for the Australian team. He has legendary success in securing non-existent tickets to enable Australian athletes to attend events in support of fellow Australians. His personal best is smuggling 150 athletes into the Australia vs United States basketball game when he actually only had 20 tickets. [ [http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/beijing_olympics/story/0,27313,24222414-5016818,00.html] ] .

He is a motivational speaker. [ [http://www.laurielawrence.com.au Laurie Lawrence] ] .

In 1988, Lawrence launched a Kids Alive Drowning Prevention Campaign to combat the problem of accidental death by drowning in the under five age group. [ [http://www.kidsalive.com.au Kids Alive] ] With support from the Federal Government and community service advertising, the program runs nationally and, as a result, drowning statistics have reduced significantly. [ [http://www.kidsalive.com.au/docs/National%20Drowning%20Statistics.pdf Kids Alive - National Drowning Statistics] ] He has researched, documented and developed a program which is now internationally recognised [ [http://www.worldwideswimschool.com Worldwide Swim School] ] [ [http://www.laurielawrenceswimschool.com.au Laurie Lawrence Swim School] ]

Family history

Laurie's father, "Stumpy", was for many years the manager of the Tobruk pool on Townsville's foreshore. During 1956 and 1960 the Tobruk pool was the training venue for the Australian Olympic Team. Swimming greats like Dawn Fraser, Lorraine Crapp, Jon Henricks, John Konrads, Murray Rose, David Theile and John Devitt were some of the many athletes who trained there.

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