Laurie Joseph Lawrence (born 14 October 1941) is an Australian

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of Athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

. He was also an

Australia national rugby union team The Australia men's national rugby union team, nicknamed the Wallabies, is the representative men's national team in the sport of rugby union for Australia. The Wallabies first played at Sydney in 1899, winning their first Test match (rugby u ...

member in 1964.

Early life

Lawrence was born in the Queensland city of

Townsville The City of Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 201,313 as of 2024, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland and Northern Australia (specifically, the parts of Australia north of ...

,ABC Talking Heads with Peter Thompson: Laurie Lawrence
/ref> where his father, Alan 'Stumpy' Lawrence, worked as a publican during the war years. Afflicted by

bronchiectasis Bronchiectasis is a disease in which there is permanent enlargement of parts of the bronchi, airways of the lung. Symptoms typically include a chronic cough with sputum, mucus production. Other symptoms include shortness of breath, hemoptysis, co ...

through his childhood Lawrence had part of his lung surgically removed, and was advised to pursue swimming to improve his remaining lung function. This prompted Lawrence's father to change jobs to become the manager of the Tobruk Pool, on Townsville's foreshore. During 1956 and 1960 the Tobruk Pool was the training venue for the Australian Olympic Team. Greats like

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, ...

Lorraine Crapp Lorraine Joyce Thurlow, (born 1 October 1938), née Crapp, is a former Olympic swimming champion representing Australia. In world swimming history, Crapp earned a place as the first woman to break the five-minute barrier in the 400 m freestyle ...

Jon Henricks John Malcolm Henricks (born 6 June 1935) is an Australian Olympic swimmer who won two gold medals at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. Henricks set world records in two freestyle events. Career Henricks began his competitive swimming ca ...

John Konrads John Konrads (; 21 May 1942 – 25 April 2021) was an Australian freestyle swimmer of the 1950s and 1960s, who won the 1500 m freestyle at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. In his career, he set 26 individual world records, and after his swimmi ...

Ilsa Konrads Ilsa Konrads (; born 29 March 1944) is an Australian former freestyle swimming, freestyle swimmer of the 1950s and 1960s, who won a silver medal in the 4×100-metre freestyle relay at the 1960 Summer Olympics. In her career, she set 13 individu ...

, Murray Rose, David Theile and John Devitt were some of the many athletes who trained there. Lawrence states:

And it was there that I got my real passion and love for swimming... ...'56 was just a magic time for me, as a young fella. And when I wasn't down amongst the athletes, asking for their autograph, then I was up there sitting on the balcony, hands over the edge of the concrete building just peering down into the water, watching Dawn Fraser, Murray Rose, John Konrads, David Tyler, Lorraine Crapp - they just keep coming - Kevin Berry. The names, the Olympic champions, and to sit up there one night, one night in Townsville when they had the last carnival before they were to go away and see 13 world records in one night, it's just etched indelibly into my memories, you know. It's just...fantastic.

Lawrence's parents separated later in the 1950s, and Lawrence moved with his mother to

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 ...

. He attended

St Laurence's College St Laurence's College (known colloquially as Lauries) is an independent Catholic primary and secondary school for boys, located in South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Founded by the Congregation of Christian Brothers in 1915. the school is a m ...

and then

Kelvin Grove Teachers College Kelvin Grove Teachers' College was established in 1961 to provide courses in primary and secondary teacher education from its predecessor the Queensland Teachers' Training College. History The Brisbane School of Arts was formed in 1849 and it wa ...

. He played

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

to get a scholarship to be a Phys Ed teacher, which led to his selection for the 1964 international tour of

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

Swim coach

For health reasons Lawrence moved back to Townsville and began to establish himself as a swim coach. During this time he made a study tour to see

Mark Spitz Mark Andrew Spitz (born February 10, 1950) is an American former competitive swimmer and nine-time Olympic champion. He was the Lists of Olympic medalists#Medalist with most medals by Olympiad, most successful athlete at the 1972 Summer Olympi ...

's coach and learn from his training regimen. He moved to

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 ...

to take over as swim coach from

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 ...

at the Hurstville Club. He inherited from Talbot the responsibility for young

Stephen Holland Stephen Roy Holland, OAM (born 31 May 1958) is an Australian former freestyle swimmer of the 1970s who won a bronze medal in the 1500 m freestyle at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. In a brief and spectacular career, he broke 12 world ...

, whom he guided to a world record and world championship in 1973. Lawrence then took a hiatus from swim coaching in 1975 to support his wife (and former swimmer) Jocelyn, after the birth of his daughter Jane. Lawrence returned to elite coaching with great success. Lawrence was one of the Australian Olympic swimming team coaches for the Los Angeles in 1984, Seoul in 1988 and Barcelona in 1992. His best known protégés include Steve Holland, Tracey Wickham,

Jon Sieben Jonathan Scott Sieben, OAM (born 24 August 1966) is an Australian former butterfly swimmer of the 1980s, who won gold in the 200-metre butterfly at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles Olympics. Early years Sieben was born in Brisbane, Que ...

and

Duncan Armstrong Duncan John D'Arcy Armstrong (born 7 April 1968) is an Australian former competitive swimmer, Olympic champion, and former world record-holder. Armstrong is best remembered for winning a gold and silver medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics. Ear ...

. His Olympic coaching achievements include 10 gold, 11 silver and 12 bronze medals from swimmers he has directly assisted. Swimmers he has coached boast 23 world records. He also coached Australian swimmers at the

1982 Commonwealth Games The 1982 Commonwealth Games were held in Brisbane, Australia, from 30 September to 9 October 1982. The Opening Ceremony was held at the QEII Stadium (named after Elizabeth II), in the Brisbane suburb of Nathan. The QEII Stadium was also the ...

in Brisbane and the

1986 Commonwealth Games The 1986 Commonwealth Games were held in Edinburgh, Scotland, between 24 July and 2 August 1986. This was the second Commonwealth Games to be held in Edinburgh. Thirty two of the eligible fifty nine countries (largely African, Asian and Caribbe ...

in Edinburgh. Lawrence's involvement with Australian Olympic swimming continued at Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 Olympic Games with a brief to unite, inspire, motivate and relax the entire team. He has legendary success in securing non-existent tickets to enable Australian athletes to attend events in support of fellow Australians. His personal best is smuggling 150 athletes into the Australia vs United States basketball game when he actually only had 20 tickets.

Other interests

In 1988, Lawrence launched a Kids Alive Drowning Prevention Campaign to combat the problem of accidental death by drowning in the under five age group. With support from the

federal government A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

and community service advertising, the program runs nationally. He has researched, documented and developed a program which is now internationally recognised Lawrence is also a motivational speaker.

Family

Lawrence married Jocelyn in 1974. They have three children, all of whom are employed at the Laurie Lawrence Swim School in Brisbane.

Honours

Lawrence was inducted into the

Sport Australia Hall of Fame The Sport Australia Hall of Fame was established on 10 December 1985 to recognise the achievements of Australian sportsmen and sportswomen. The inaugural induction included 120 members with Don Bradman, Sir Don Bradman as the first inductee and ...

in 1991 and received an

Australian Sports Medal The Australian Sports Medal is an award given to recognise achievements in Australian sport to commemorate Australian participation in major sporting events. Original recipients of the award included competitors, coaches, sports scientists, off ...

in 2000. He was appointed

Officer of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...

in the

2025 Australia Day Honours The 2025 Australia Day Honours are appointments Australian honours system, to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by Australian citizens. The list was announced on 26 January 2025 by the Governor General of Australia, Sa ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lawrence, Laurie 1941 births Living people Australian swimming coaches Olympic coaches for Australia Officers of the Order of Australia Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductees Sportspeople from Townsville Recipients of the Australian Sports Medal People educated at St Laurence's College Australian rugby union players Australia international rugby union players Queensland rugby union team players 20th-century Australian sportsmen