Leisel Jones
Leisel Jones
Leisel Marie Jones, OAMis an Australian former competition swimmer and Olympic gold medallist. 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 4×100-metre medley relay at the Athens Games in 2004 and a gold medalist for 100-meter breaststroke in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing...
ProfessionSwimmer
Date of Birth30 August 1985
athens both changed learning life meet pressure since
Life has changed dramatically for me since the 2004 Athens Olympics. With every meet I'm learning more. I have no real pressure on me since I have both breaststroke (100m/200m) world records.
alight cheering great
They're cheering so loud. It's responsible for a lot of the great performances out there. It's alight out there, it's a real buzz.
course distance good longer short start swimming
I think it's a good start for my short course swimming and it is even better for the longer distance games.
exciting known putting quite since slow swimmer
It was very exciting because I'm not known as a 50 swimmer and ever since I was quite young, I've had slow starts. I'm putting things into place now.
coach coming life trust warm
It was pretty exciting. All life experiences coming into one race. I'm comfortable with my result, I trust my coach and this is only a warm up experience.
goal
That is amazing. My goal was to go 1:05.9.
awesome girls version
We're the girls' version of the awesome foursome.
sports good-friend three
I've achieved everything I ever wanted. I've done three Olympics, world championships, I've been around the world and made good friends. But I still have the inner drive to do more, to be not just good, but to be great.
sports motivational-sports thinking
I don't think I'm unbeatable, nobody is
sports athlete people
It's easy to forget when you're an elite athlete that everyone else gets nervous as well. Even the best people in the world, at whatever they do, they're still nervous
sports swim desire
I'm really quite exhausted at the moment, but you never know, you are always surprised at what you can find sometimes, and maybe I will find something deep within to find the desire to swim fast
sports winning everyday
I used to beat myself up everyday if I did not win an event. I am quite open about those things now and that has been a big change.
sports media people
It took a lot of guts to change it and say 'I don't like the life that I'm living and I don't like the swimmer I am', so let's change it completely and say 'Look, I've got to learn to love myself'. And that's been a really hard thing to do because when you've done a performance that you're not proud of and the public and the media have criticized you.....people are really quick to make judgements so it was tough to say 'Well I don't care what you have to say. I'm going to do this for myself and if you don't like me after this, well then, it's too bad'.
sports believe race
Going into that race I was going for the world record, just quietly, but I wasn't feeling at my best all week so it was hard to determine what would happen. I could not believe it, I went into shock, I'm still in shock.