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Leisel Jones Profile |
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Birth Date: August 30, 1985
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Birth Place: Katherine, Northern Territory, Australia
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Birth Name: Leisel Marie Jones
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Height: 5'10"
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Biography |
Leisel Jones is an Australian swimmer. A participant in the
2000 Summer Olympics - at just 15 years old - and 2004
Summer Olympics, she was part of Gold medal winning
Australian team in the Women's 4 x 100 metre medley relay at
the Athens Games in 2004. She is noted for employing a
classical breaststroke technique, typified by a slow, but
deeper stroke cycle, and also by her slow starts - she is
consistently the last swimmer to enter the water and emerge
from it after the underwater dive.
Jones was selected for the Australian team at just 14 years
of age, qualifying in the 100 m breaststroke at the
Australian Championships in May 2000 in Sydney, and was
partially responsible for ending the international career of
former breaststroke champion Samantha Riley. She swam a
personal best in the final at the Olympics to claim a
somewhat unexpected silver medal behind American swimmer
Megan Quann. She also combined with Dyana Calub, Petria
Thomas and Susie O'Neill in the 4x100 m medley relay to win
silver, again behind the Americans. Jones left school aged
15 to concentrate on swimming.
2001 marked the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka,
Japan, and Jones was now one of the established swimmers,
and was expected to do well, despite still being two months
shy of her sixteenth birthday. However she succumbed under
the pressure, finishing second to China's Luo Xuejuan. It
also marked her international debut in the 200 m
breaststroke, where she came fourth place (2:25.46s). She
also collected a gold in the medley relay alongside Calub,
Thomas and Sarah Ryan, the first time that the United States
had been beaten at such a level of competition in this
event.
In 2002, she claimed her first titles on the international
arena, claiming the breaststroke double at the 2002
Commonwealth Games in Manchester.
In 2003, Jones arrived at the World Aquatics Championships
in Barcelona, Spain, confident that she would erase the
memories of her previous World Championships. She had also
set an Australian record in the 200 m individual medley
earlier in the year, in an experimental event. She started
confidently, setting a world record in the semifinals of the
100 m breaststroke (1:06.37s). However, she succumbed to
nerves in the final and came third, with Luo again winning
the event. She also achieved a silver in the 200 m
breaststroke in Barcelona, behind Amanda Beard in
(2:24.33s).
In the month leading up to the Athens Olympics, Jones set a
world record (2:22.96) in a meet in Brisbane, Australia.
This led to high expectations of an even better performance
in Athens, as Jones had not been rested prior to swimming
the world record. However, it was reclaimed by Beard at the
US Olympic trials only a few days later.
In Athens, Jones was again the quickest qualifier of the 100
m breaststroke, after setting an Olympic record (1:06.78) in
the semifinals. Again, she succumbed to nerves in the final,
making a poor turn, subsequently panicking and finished in
the bronze position, again won by Luo. In the 200 m event,
she attempted to take an attacking approach, but faded in
the last 50 m and was pipped to the wall by Beard, winning
silver.
Jones' world record in the 100 m breaststroke was broken at
the 2005 World Aquatics Championships in Montreal, Canada by
Jessica Hardy of the United States in 1:06.20, again in the
semifinal. However, this time the expectations turned to
Hardy, and Jones turned the tables and beat Hardy to the
wall, breaking through for her first win at world or Olympic
level. Later in the week, having exorcised her demons, she
demolished the world record for the 200 m breaststroke
(2:21.72s), on 29 July 2005. In the process, she won the
gold medal, leaving her rivals more than 6 metres behind.
For her efforts, she was named by Swimming World magazine as
the Female World Swimmer of the Year in 2005.
Jones used to train at the Redcliffe club in Scarborough,
Queensland, and was coached by Ken Wood. Her training
partners included fellow Australian team members, Geoff
Huegill and Jessicah Schipper. After her disappointing
campaign in Athens, Jones moved to train at the Fortitude
Valley Pool in Brisbane, Australia, alongside Libby Lenton,
under Swiss-born coach Stephan Widmer. Following the move,
Jones began to speak openly about the depression and
self-esteem issues that had plagued her following her being
thrust into the spotlight at such a tender age. This and the
successes that followed endeared her to an Australian public
that had been critical of her attitude following her failure
to capture individual gold in Athens. Some, including
swimming legend Dawn Fraser, believed Jones had acted
immaturely and ungratefully, particularly in her indifferent
displays of emotion during post-race interviews and medal
ceremonies. This shift in attitude appeared to reflect a
more contented Jones, and helped to make her a darling of
both the public and the media.
The changes which occurred in 2005 continued to pay off at
the Australian Commonwealth Games Swimming Trials where
Jones broke her personal best time in the 50 m (30.85) and
slashed 1.18 seconds from her previous world record in the
200 m breaststroke (2.20:54). She is now almost 2 seconds
clear of the world's second fastest swimmer in the events
history, Amanda Beard. On Day 5 of the Australian Nationals,
Leisel re-wrote the history books with a new World Record in
the 100 m breaststroke final. Jones won the Australian
championship in a time of 1:05.71 which lowered the previous
mark by 0.49 s. This qualified her to compete for Australia
at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
Jones completed a clean sweep of the breaststroke events (50
m, 100 m and 200 m) at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, the only
time this has been achieved in the breaststroke events in
the history of the Games. In the butterfly events (50 m, 100
m and 200 m) at the 2002 Manchester Games, Petria Thomas was
the first swimmer in Commonwealth Games history to complete
a clean sweep. The 50 m events were introduced at the
Manchester Games. In the 50 m breastsroke, an event she had
only recently begun competing in, she upset reigning world
champion and world record holder Jade Edmistone. She later
proceeded to collect another gold in the 200 m breaststroke,
and completed the sweep with the gold medal in the 100 m in
a world record time of 1:05.09--an effort that saw her own
world record reduced 0.62 s and was declared "Beamonesque"
by aquatics Journalist Craig Lord, a reference to Bob
Beamon's legendary longjump at the Mexico City Olympics. A
fourth gold medal in world record time in the 4x100 m medley
relay with Sophie Edington, Jessicah Schipper and Libby
Lenton rounded off her Commonwealth Games.
In 2007, she competed in the World Championships and won the
100 m and 200 m breaststroke and the 4 × 100 m medley
relay, setting a world record in the relay. She also won
silver in the 50 m breaststroke. She then left Brisbane and
Widmer to move to Melbourne to train under Ian Pope, so that
she could live with her fiance Marty Pask, an Australian
rules footballer with the Western Bulldogs.
In early 2008, she won the breaststroke double at the 2008
Australian Swimming Championships to qualify for the Beijing
Olympics.
Although missing the World Short Course Championships in
Manchester due to the preparation for the 2008 Beijing
Olympics she broke her own world record over 100m
breaststroke (SC) in 1:03,72 at the Telstra Grand Prix in
Canberra. |
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since August 11, 2008