Olympics, 2024: The families of Australian swimming who lead golden Olympics hopes at Paris
The Australian swimming team has always referred to itself as one big, happy family. But at Paris, those family ties will run deeper than ever with four second-generation Olympic swimmers.
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The Australian swimming team has always referred to itself as one big, happy family.
At the Paris Olympics, those family ties will run deeper than ever.
For the first time, Australia will field four swimmers whose parents also wore the green and gold togs at the Olympics.
It’s an extraordinary connection and extremely rare.
While there have been celebrated cases of siblings swimming together, such as the Konrads, the Campbells and the McKeons, there have only ever been five parent-child combinations who have swum for the Dolphins dating back more than a century.
RON AND EMMA McKEON
The McKeons are Australian swimming royalty.
A middle distance freestyler, Ron swam for Australia at two Olympic Games, at Moscow in 1980 and Los Angeles in 1984.
He also swam at two Commonwealth Games, winning four gold medals.
At the 1982 Commonwealth Games, one of his teammates was Susie Woodhouse, and they later married.
Her brother, Rob Woodhouse, won a bronze in the 400m medley at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
Ron and Susie had three kids. Their son David represented Australia at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics and won a Commonwealth Games gold medal in 2014.
His sister Emma is Australia’s all time Olympic record holder, with 11 medals in her collection including five golds.
The GOAT will swim in the 100m butterfly plus relays in Paris.
JANELLE ELFORD AND LANI PALLISTER
Janelle was an endurance swim star for Australia in the 1980s and 1990s.
Nicknamed “Big Red” because of the colour of her hair, Elford swam at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.
She came sixth in the 800m freestyle and fifth in the 400m, finishing behind two East Germans who were part of the most sophisticated state-sponsored doping scheme in sports history.
Elford should have got bronze. In 1990, she won gold, silver and bronze medals at the Commonwealth Games.
A dead ringer for her mother, Lani has emerged as a star performer in distance events.
She won three gold and three silver medals at the 2019 world junior championships but missed selection for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics after becoming ill.
In 2022, she made her senior debut, winning a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games then four golds at the shortcourse world titles. She will make her Olympic debut in Paris, competing in the 800m, 1500m and 4x200m.
HAYLEY LEWIS AND KAI TAYLOR
Hayley shot to international fame as a 15-year-old when she won five gold medals at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland.
A year later, she won a world title then in 1992, at the Barcelona Olympics, she won silver in the 800m and bronze in the 400m.
A reluctant star, Lewis went on to swim at three Olympics, and added to her medal tally at Commonwealth Games and world championships, where she won bronze in the 5km open water in 2001 at Fukuoka.
Her youngest son Kai specialises in 100m and 200m freestyle.
He made his senior international debut at the 2023 world championships, also in Fukuoka, after winning the 200m final at the trials from the outside lane after initially failing to qualify. He won a gold medal in the 4x100m relay and a bronze in the 4x200m.
HEATH AND ELLA RAMSAY
Heath represented Australia at the Sydney 2000 Olympics as a teenager and qualified for the 200m butterfly where Michael Phelps made his Olympic debut.
He was third in his heat to safely qualify for the semis but missed out on the final. Ramsay was a finalist at the 2002 Commonwealth Games before retiring in 2003.
His daughter Ella, 20, has been a star on the rise for years. In 2021, she won 10 events at the Australian Age Championships before breaking into the senior team for the 2002 Commonwealth Games.
She will swim in three events in Paris – the 200m and 400 individual medley plus 200m breaststroke.
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