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Lorraine Crapp

Personal information
Full name	Lorraine Joyce Crapp
Nationality	Australia
Stroke(s)	Freestyle
Date of birth	October 1, 1938 (1938-10-01) (age 71)
Place of birth	Sydney, New South Wales
Height	1.67 m (5 ft 5+1⁄2 in)
Medal record Women’s Swimming Competitor for  Australia Olympic Games Gold 1956 Melbourne 400 m freestyle Gold 1956 Melbourne 4x100 m freestyle Silver 1956 Melbourne 100 m freestyle Silver 1960 Rome 4x100 m freestyle British Empire and Commonwealth Games Gold 1954 Vancouver 100 m freestyle Gold 1954 Vancouver 400 m freestyle

Lorraine Crapp (born October 17, 1938 in Sydney, New South Wales) is a former Olympic swimming champion representing Australia. She competed in two Olympic Games — the 1956 Summer Olympics and the 1960 Summer Olympics.

Lorraine was schooled in Burwood, New South Wales at the MLC School. She had been a youthful protégé of Dawn Fraser's mentor Harry Gallagher, but at age sixteen she switched to the coaching of Frank Guthrie. Under his guidance, she set her first of 23 world records in January 1954, and later that year she won the British Empire Games 110 yard and 440 yard titles. Along with Dawn Fraser, she set some world records during the 1956 Australian national championships, and both of them hit their best form during the winter training with the Olympic squad in Townsville, Queensland.

Coming into the Games, Lorraine and Dawn shared the world 100 meter record, and Crapp held six other records over longer distances. In the Olympic 100 m final, Fraser beat Crapp in a close finish, with both swimmers below the world-record time. Faith Leech made it a 1-2-3 victory for Australia. In the only other individual women’s freestyle event, the 400 meters, Crapp drew away from Fraser after two laps to win by a good margin in Olympic-record time. Dawn Fraser finished second to win the silver medal.

Dawn Fraser, Faith Leech, Sandra Morgan, and Ms. Crapp, swimming in that order, set the world record to win the gold medal in the 4x100 meter relay. That gave Crapp and Fraser each a 1956 total of two gold medals and a silver medal. On the eve of her departure for the 1960 Rome Games, Crapp married Dr. Bill Thurlow, a medical officer working for the Australian team. She won a silver medal with the 4x100 meter relay team, and then she retired from competitive swimming.

Some time after her retirement, Crapp and her husband won the first prize in one of the Sydney Opera House Lotteries.

Crapp (centre) profiled in a magazine spread in the early 1950s discussing young and rising Australian sportspeople

References

• Andrews, Malcolm (2000). Australia at the Olympic Games.  
• Howell, Max (1986). Aussie Gold.