1985 -

Liesel Jones ended a long, sometimes tormented journey when she won the 100 metres breaststroke at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. It was a journey that lasted eight years, since she burst into the international spotlight, aged 14, at the Sydney Olympics. Some saw it as evidence that she had final beaten her toughest, most difficult opponent: herself. She won by more than a body length - a rare margin in a 100-metre event - in 65.17 sec, the second fastest time in history, behind her own world record.

Jones was destined to become the world’s greatest female breaststroker from her stunning debut as the Sydney Games, when she won the silver medal in this event. She reached her low point in Athens in 2004, as world record-holder and gold-medal favourite, when she was beaten into third place by China’s Luo Xuejuan and Australian Brooke Hanson. Unable to conceal her disappointment, she was branded a choker, and Dawn Fraser called her “a spoiled brat”. She later swapped coaches from Ken Wood to Stephen Widmer, who saw her problem as one of self-esteem.

She went on to win her first of seven world championships, and moved to Melbourne from Brisbane, joining a new coach, Rohan Taylor. She spoke openly after her Beijing win about her transformation - aided by her mother Rosemary, fiancé Marty Pask and coaches Widmer and Taylor - to an athlete who no longer equated self worth with success in the pool. Jones won silver in the 200m breaststroke, and was a member of the winning 4 x 100m medley relay team in Beijing. She had also won medley gold in Athens.

Harry Gordon, AOC Historian