Janice Gabrielle Cameron (, formerly Talbot), (20 February 1947 – 30 April 2018) was an Australian competition swimmer and coach. She won a silver medal at the

1964 Tokyo Olympics The , officially the and commonly known as Tokyo 1964 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 10 to 24 October 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo had been awarded the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this honor was subsequ ...

and three medals at the

1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games The 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games were held in Kingston, Jamaica, from 4 to 13 August 1966. This was the first time that the Games had been held outside the so-called White Dominions. The event was followed by the 1966 Commonweal ...

in Jamaica. She coached with her first husband

Don Talbot Donald Malcolm Talbot (23 August 19333 November 2020) was an Australian Olympic swimming coach and sport administrator. He coached national teams for Canada, the United States and Australia. Early life Talbot was born on 23 August 1933 as t ...

in Australia, Canada, and the United States, and then moved to New Zealand, where she worked as a coach and sporting administrator until 2011. From May 2013 until February 2017, she coached the Paralympic Swimming Program at the USC Spartans Swim Club based at the

University of the Sunshine Coast The University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC; formerly abbreviated as USC until 2022) is a public university based on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. After opening with 524 students in 1996 as the Sunshine Coast University College, it ...

in Queensland, and she was Australia's National Para Sport Mentor Coach from February 2017 until her death.

Early life

Janice Murphy was born on 20 February 1947 in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, the eldest of three children. Her two brothers were keen

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby union: 15 players per side *** American flag rugby *** Beach rugby *** Mini rugby *** Rugby sevens, 7 players per side *** Rugby tens, 10 players per side *** Snow rugby *** Tou ...

players. She attended Rosebank College.

Competitive swimming career

Murphy's career overlapped that of fellow Australian swimmer,

Dawn Fraser Dawn Fraser (born 4 September 1937) is an Australian freestyle champion swimmer, eight-time olympic medallist, a 15-year world record holder in the 100-metre freestyle, and former politician. Controversial, yet the winner of countless honours, ...

. Murphy won a silver medal in the 4×100-metre freestyle relay at the

1964 Summer Olympics The , officially the and commonly known as Tokyo 1964 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 10 to 24 October 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo had been awarded the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this honor was subseq ...

in Tokyo; she teamed with Fraser, Lyn Bell and

Robyn Thorn Robyn Jean Thorn (born 26 November 1945), also known by her married name Robyn Nock, is an Australian former freestyle swimmer who won the silver medal in the 4×100-metre freestyle relay at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Coming from King ...

to finish 3.1 seconds behind the United States. She subsequently switched from Forbes Carlile's swimming team to work with

. At the

1966 Commonwealth Games The 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games were held in Kingston, Jamaica, from 4 to 13 August 1966. This was the first time that the Games had been held outside the so-called White Dominions. The event was followed by the 1966 Commonweal ...

in Kingston, Jamaica, she won two silver medals in the 440-yard individual medley and the freestyle relay, and a bronze medal in the 110-yard freestyle.

Coaching career

After the Tokyo Olympics, she began a teaching scholarship at the Wollongong Teachers' College (now the

University of Wollongong The University of Wollongong (UOW) is an Australian public university, public research university located in the coastal city of Wollongong, New South Wales, approximately south of Sydney. , the university had an enrolment of more than 33,000 s ...

). While studying there she did coaching on the sidelines; her first coaching job was in 1968 at a small swimming club in

Port Kembla A port is a maritime law, maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge Affreightment, cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inla ...

. After graduation, she took the activity up full-time. She was the Paralympic swimming coach for the Australian team at the 1972 Heidelberg Paralympics, notably working with Pauline English, whom she also coached at the 1976 Toronto Paralympics. She worked as an assistant coach for Talbot, her first husband, in Canada, the United States and Australia. While in Canada, she completed an Honours degree in Physical Education and received a Masters in Coaching Sciences from

Lakehead University Lakehead University is a public research university with campuses in Thunder Bay and Orillia, Ontario, Canada. Lakehead University, shortened to 'Lakehead U', is non-denominational and provincially supported. It has undergraduate programs, gradua ...

. She moved to New Zealand with Kevin Cameron, her second husband, and in 1991 she began working as head coach for the North Shore Swimming Club, turning it from a club with little money and no resources to one that attracted New Zealand's elite swimmers. In 2001, Cameron began working as a national coach at the newly built Millennium Institute of Sport and Health (now AUT Millennium) at the

Auckland University of Technology Auckland University of Technology ( AUT; ) is a university in New Zealand, formed on 1 January 2000 when a former technical college (originally established in 1895) was granted university status. AUT is New Zealand's third largest university i ...

, and in 2008 she was appointed as the general manager performance and pathways at Swimming New Zealand. In September 2011 she resigned from this position, nearly three months after the release of the Ineson report initiated by

Sport New Zealand Sport New Zealand (Sport NZ) ( Māori: ''Ihi Aotearoa'') is a New Zealand Crown entity responsible for governing sport and recreation in New Zealand. Their subsidiary High Performance Sport New Zealand deals with elite athletes. Legislat ...

, which described the high-performance culture of Swimming New Zealand as "negative" and "dysfunctional". In an interview shortly after her resignation, Cameron said that the report was "Poorly written, poorly done, rubbish", and described parts of the report as "speculation, opinion and unsubstantiated stuff put there as facts". From 2011 to 2014 she was managing director of Jan Cameron Performance Compass, a performance sports consulting company that she founded. She was the Paralympic swimming coach at the

in Queensland from April 2014 to February 2017, having been appointed to that role in an interim capacity in May 2013. From February 2017 until her death, she was the Australian National Para Sport Mentor Coach. She also worked as a swimming commentator for Sky TV. She was selected as an Australian Team Coach at the 2014 Para Pan Pacific Swimming Championships and the

2015 IPC Swimming World Championships The 2015 IPC Swimming World Championships was the eighth IPC Swimming World Championships, an international swimming competition for athletes with a disability. It was held in Glasgow, United Kingdom and took place from 13 to 19 July. Around 580 ...

Team. In 2015, she became the third Australian woman to gain her Platinum Coaching Licence following on from her swimmers' winning ten medals at the

in Glasgow, Scotland. She coached the Australian Swim Team at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympics and was the Head Para Mentor Coach at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

Personal life

She married

in 1973. The couple had a son,

Scott Talbot Scott Thomas Talbot, also Talbot-Cameron (born 13 July 1981) is an Australian-born swimmer and swimming coach who represented New Zealand in swimming from 1997 to 2006 and has worked as a coach in several countries. Early life Talbot is the so ...

, an Olympic swimmer and coach. Her marriage to Talbot ended in 1989, and she married Kevin Cameron, the director of sport production at Sky Television in New Zealand, in 1990. They had first met in 1961 when Kevin, then 14, was playing rugby for a New Zealand school team that was touring Australia. He was

billet In European militaries, a billet is a living-quarters to which a soldier is assigned to sleep. In American usage, it refers to a specific personnel position, assignment, or duty station to which a soldier can be assigned. Historically, a billet w ...

ed with the Murphy family as her brother was playing in the opposition team. The two corresponded for six years after their first meeting, and were briefly engaged after Murphy's retirement from the Olympics. On 30 April 2018, Cameron died in Queensland after a short illness at the age of 71. Cameron posthumously received the

Medal of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of then ...

in the

2019 Queen's Birthday Honours The 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as p ...

"for service to swimming, particularly as a coach."

Notes

References