Commercial Swimming Club is a swimming club that is based at the

Fortitude Valley Fortitude Valley (often called "The Valley" by local residents) is an inner suburb of the City of Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, Australia. In the , Fortitude Valley had a population of 9,708 people. The suburb features two pedestri ...

Pool in centre of

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

. Club members have represented the country at the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

FINA World Aquatics Championships The World Aquatics Championships, formerly the FINA World Championships, are the World Championships for six aquatic disciplines: swimming, diving, high diving, open water swimming, artistic swimming, and water polo. The championships are stag ...

and

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games is a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations, which consists mostly, but not exclusively, of territories of the former British Empire. The event was first held in 1930 ...

. Prominent club members have included

Susie O'Neill Susan O'Neill, (born 2 August 1973) is an Australian former competitive swimmer from Brisbane, Queensland, nicknamed "Madame Butterfly". She achieved eight Olympic Games medals during her swimming career. Early life O'Neill was born on 2 Augu ...

, Cate and

Bronte Campbell Bronte Campbell (born 14 May 1994) is a Malawian-born Australian competitive Swimming (sport), swimmer. A four time Olympian, Campbell is a triple Olympic gold medallist and a former World Champion in the 50 and 100 m freestyle, having won bot ...

, Kieren Perkins and Libby Trickett.

History

The Commercial Swimming Club is over 110 years old, commencing as a ladies' club, The Ladies Commercial Amateur Swimming Club, about November, 1903. A men's club, The Commercial Amateur Swimming Club, commenced in 1913. The two clubs amalgamated in 1974. All of the original records and other photographs and documentation relating to the club's first 104 years in the possession of the Club, were handed to the John Oxley Library, part of the Queensland State Library, in Brisbane by Barry Short, in 2007, to prevent the loss of any of these records as did happen to much of the early records. Additional records relating to each season of the club are being forwarded to the John Oxley Library to continue the recording of the club's history, for the benefit of those writing a history of the club's second 100 years. The beginning of the club in 1903 and after, shows a very different story to the modern swimming scene. The women' club conducted a three-mile race in the Bremer River, on 22 March 1913, won by Minnie King. About the same time, three mile races were regularly being held in the river for men. According to Jim Dunning, the men's club's original Secretary: "On the Saturday before the three mile swim, the Queensland Ladies' Amateur Swimming Association allowed men to be spectators at a ladies carnival for the first time in many years. It was the occasion of the interstate ladies Championship." Another women's three mile race was conducted by Commercial Ladies' in the following season in 1913. The men's club's first world record holder, James William Thompson, won it swimming one mile backstroke. He is recorded of being a world record holder early in the men's club's life (from 1913) and a copy of a certificate shows he swam a further mile world record on 18 January 1918, swimming the distance in backstroke in 29 minutes and 4.2 seconds, at the City Bath on Wickham St in

. At that time the baths, also known as the Booroodabin Baths, were covered and were 100 feet long.

Notable athletes

2008 Australian Olympic team Leisel Jones - Sarah Ewart

* Michael Bohl * Cate Campbell (2013-2016) *

(2013-2011) * Tommaso D'Orsogna (2014-2016) * Jayden Hadler (2014-2016) * Leisel Jones (2004-2007) *

* Kieren Perkins *

Carolyn Reid Carolyn Marie Reid (born 28 March 1972) is a retired female field hockey goalkeeper, who was a member of the British squad that competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. She won a total number of three medals (two silver, one br ...

Samantha Riley Samantha Linette Pearl Riley (born 13 November 1972) is an Australian former competitive swimmer. She is of Aboriginal descent. She specialised in breaststroke and competed for Australia in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona and the 1996 ...

* Angela Russell * Jessicah Schipper (2008-) * Melanie Schlanger *

Christian Sprenger Christian David Sprenger (born 19 December 1985) is an Australian former breaststroke swimmer. He trains at the Commercial Swimming Club under Simon Cusack. Swimming career At the 2008 Australian Swimming Championships he qualified in the 1 ...

(2013-2015) * Libby Trickett (-2008) * Angus Waddell * Tarnee White * Tracey Wickham * Nancy Lyons

References

{{reflist 1903 establishments in Australia Sports clubs and teams established in 1903 Swim teams in Australia Sports clubs and teams in Brisbane Swimming clubs in Australia Fortitude Valley, Queensland

History

Notable athletes

See also

References