"To provide the life skills of swimming, water safety and water awareness, to disadvantaged people and people who cannot swim, in Australia and throughout the world" - that's the mission of the Shane Gould Swimming Foundation.
You can read more about the foundation and its work at Shane Gould's website. Food for thought. Today is Gould's birthday - a good moment to lend your support to a great cause. On that website you can also catch up with what Shane Gould is up to these days and see some of the fabulous water-themed shots seen through the eye of a human dolphin; and follow the open water swims that Gould is involved with, including the a long distance triathlon in Wanaka South Island New Zealand on February 16 2010, and the Devil of a Swim Easter Sunday events on April 4, 2010 at Bicheno, Tasmania.
Gould recently read for a Masters of Environmental Management at Uni in Tasmania. Forever learning along life's journey. Having fun, too, by the sounds of things.
Meantime, for those who may need reminding or not yet know, Shane Gould is one of the greatest swimmers ever to grace the race pool.
Here's an extract, penned by this author, from Aquatics 1908-2008, the centennial volume that considers Gould among the greatest swimmers to ever grace international waters.
"On February 3, 1971, a 14-year-old shooting star called Shane Gould began her ascendancy across the Southern skies of Australia with an 8:58.1 world record over 800m freestyle. It was the first of 11 global standards that she would set over a period of two years and eight days that marked the greatest whirlwind career in swimming history, one topped by five individual medals at the Olympic Games in Munich, 1972.
"As Michael Wenden put it perfectly: “Shane was like a high-decibel concert that had such an impact, it left your ears ringing. But it left you still humming the tunes long after it came to an end". Gould’s comet-like impact - before Munich she had started to swim times that matched those in which John Konrads (AUS) had held world freestyle records at little over 10 years before - was not lost on her main rivals at the 1972 Olympics, the USA. American team t-shirts declared “All that glitters is not Gould”. She almost proved them wrong.
"By the time she arrived in Germany, Gould had matched Helen Madison’s 1931 feat of holding the world record in all metric distances from 100m to 1,500m. By the time “Die Goldfisch” left Munich, she had become the first woman to win three solo gold medals in world record time, the first woman to hold all freestyle world records and the 200m medley, and the first woman to win five individual Olympic medals."
Gould remains the only woman ever to have won five solo medals at a Games. Happy Birthday Shane.
