Tracey Wickham
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| Full name | Tracey Lee Wickham | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nickname(s) | Tiger | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| National team | Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 24 November 1962 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.63 m (5 ft 4 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Sport | Swimming | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Strokes | Freestyle | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Tracey Lee Wickham MBE, OAM (born 24 November 1962 in Rosebud, Victoria) is an Australian former middle distance swimmer. Wickham was the World Champion for the 400 m and 800 m freestyle in 1978, and won gold in both events at the 1978 and 1982 Commonwealth Games. She is a former world record holder for the 400 m, 800 m and 1500 m freestyle. Despite her success in the pool, Wickham has battled financial hardship and personal tragedy throughout her life.
Wickham began swimming at the age of eight at John Rigby’s pool in Brisbane and mastered her technique under the guidance of Peter Diamond. At the age of thirteen, she was selected to be on the Australian team for the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games but failed to reach the finals at that meet.
In 1977, Wickham’s family moved to California, where she trained for six months with coaching legend Mark Schubert. She returned to Brisbane at the end of 1977 and she came under the guidance of coach Bill Sweetenham at the Commercial Swimming Club. On 8 February 1978, Wickham broke her first world record, the 1500 m freestyle, in a solo swim at the Fortitude Valley Pool in Brisbane, clocking 16:14.93.
At the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, Canada, Wickham won both the 400 m and 800 m freestyle. That same year, she set world records in both events, and won both the 400 m and 800 m freestyle at the 1978 Berlin World Championships, setting a world 400 m record of 4.06.28, which stood as the Championship record until 2007. Both world records stood until 1987, long after her retirement.
In 1980, Australia decided against an official boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics. A number of Australian athletes elected to boycott the Games personally. Wickham maintains that she withdrew from the team because of illness, as she was suffering glandular fever at the time, not because of the boycott. The 800 m freestyle was won by fellow Australian Michelle Ford at that meet.
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Wikipedia