Lisa Curry

Lisa Curry
Personal information
Full name Lisa Gaye Curry
National team  Australia
Born (1962-05-15) 15 May 1962
Brisbane, Queensland
Height 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Weight 62 kg (137 lb)
Sport
Sport Swimming
Strokes Butterfly, medley, freestyle

Lisa Gaye Curry AO MBE (born 15 May 1962), also known by her married name Lisa Curry-Kenny, is an Australian former competition swimmer.

Curry won 15 gold, seven silver and eight bronze international swimming medals, and is the only Australian swimmer to have held Commonwealth and Australian records in every stroke except backstroke.[1] She was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder.[2]

Curry was the chair of the National Australia Day Council from 2000 to 2008.

Swimming career

Curry's swimming ability was noticed at a young age and by the age of 12 was one of the fastest swimmers of her age in the world. From 1977 to 1992, she represented Australia 16 times. She won 15 national long course open titles and competed in World Championships in 1978 and 1982. Curry had success in three Commonwealth Games - a silver medal in the 4×100-metre medley relay at Edmonton in 1978, three gold medals (100-metre butterfly, 200- and 400-metre individual medley) and a bronze (100-metre freestyle) at Brisbane in 1982, and four gold medals (100-metre butterfly, 50-metre freestyle, 4×100-metre freestyle relay, 4×100-metre medley relay) and one silver (100-metre freestyle) at Auckland in 1990. Curry also competed in the Olympic Games at Moscow (1980), Los Angeles (1984) and Barcelona (1992). After retiring from swimming, she competed in surf boat rowing competitions and outrigger canoe events, and her team won the World Championship Outrigger Canoe event in 1997.[1]

Honours

On 31 December 1982, Curry was named a Member of the Order of the British Empire "in recognition of service to the sport of swimming".[3] She was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1985.[1] At the 1994 Australian Day Honours, Curry was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia "in recognition of service to the sport of swimming".[4] On 14 July 2000, Curry was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for "her significant contribution as a competitor in swimming".[5] On 1 January 2001, Curry was awarded the Centenary Medal for "service to Australian society through swimming and the National Australia Day Council".[6] At the 2008 Australian Day Honours, Curry was named as a Officer of the Order of Australia "for service to the community through encouraging national pride and identity, particularly through leadership of the National Australia Day Council."[7] In 2009 Curry was inducted into the Queensland Sport Hall of Fame.[8]

Television

In October 2011, Curry appeared on the Nine Network's The Celebrity Apprentice Australia. She appeared in advertising campaigns for cruise liner P&O Cruises Australia and Uncle Tobys.

Business interests

Curry and former husband Grant Kenny co-own the Curry Kenny Aviation Group, which in 2009 owned approximately 60 aircraft.[9]

Personal life

Curry was married to Grant Kenny, former ironman surf lifesaver and olympic bronze medallist, in 1984. They have three children, Jaimi, Morgan and Jett. Curry-Kenny and Kenny separated in May 2009.[9][10] In 2008 Curry had heart surgery operation to implant a defibrillator after being found to have an irregular heartbeat as a consequence of a viral infection.[11]

See also

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/12/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.