Lyn McClements, Date of Birth, Place of Birth
TweetLyn McClements
Australian swimmer, Olympic gold medallist
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Nedlands, Western Australia, Australia
About Lyn McClements
- Lynette Velma McClements (born 11 May 1951), also known by her married name Lyn McKenzie, is an Australian butterfly swimmer of the 1960s and 1970s who won a gold medal in the 100-metre butterfly at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. Coming from Perth, Western Australia, McClements was an asthmatic, who took up swimming to relieve her ailment.
- Originally concentrating on the freestyle and backstroke, she switched to butterfly in the mid-1960s.
- Only a year before the Olympics, McClements was almost ready to retire from competitive swimming, when her uncle Les McClements, a professional Australian rules football player convinced her otherwise.In 1968, she claimed her first Australian title in the 100-metre butterfly, earning selection for the Mexico City Olympics, where she was considered an outsider for the event. In the 4×100-metre medley relay, she combined with Lynne Watson, Judy Playfair and Janet Steinbeck to claim silver behind the United States team.
- McClements had put Australia in the lead during the butterfly leg, but Steinbeck was overhauled by Susan Pedersen in the anchor freestyle leg.
- McClements was said to be lacking confidence prior to the 100-metre butterfly, until the men's captain Michael Wenden pulled her aside in an attempt to coax her into believing that she could win.
- She relegated the American pair of Ellie Daniel and Susan Shields into the minor medals and world record-holder Ada Kok to fourth, posting a time of 1 minute 5.5 seconds.
- She later missed the final of the 200-metre butterfly. In 1969, McClements won both the 100-metre and 200-metre butterfly titles at the Australian Championships.
- However, the following year, she was disqualified after being deemed to be using an illegal stroke.
- After being overlooked for selection for the 1970 Commonwealth Games, she retired. Her daughter, Jacqueline McKenzie, represented Australia at the 1992 Summer Olympics in the 200-metre and 400-metre individual medley.
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