Susan Angela Costin (born 9 September 1944) was an Australian professional swimmer who represented Australia during the

1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games The 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games were held in Perth, Western Australia, from 22 November to 1 December 1962. Athletic events were held at Perry Lakes Stadium in the suburb of Floreat and swimming events at Beatty Park in North ...

in the women's backstroke events.

Life and career

Costin was born Susan Angela Costin on 9 September 1944 at King George V Hospital to Angela Mann (later Angela Costin), a rowing master and her husband Wes, who both later also had another child, Prudence. In 1954, the family moved to

Baulkham Hills Baulkham Hills (;) is a suburb in the Hills District, New South Wales, Hills District of Greater Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located within north-west of the Sydney central business district mostly within the Loca ...

, where Sue and her sister began swimming at Granville pool and became competitive members of the ''Parramatta City Amateur Swimming Club''.

Swimming

In 1959, Costin won the western Sydney swimming title and represented

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

in 1960 during the

Australian Swimming Championships The Australian Swimming Championships is the national Swimming (sport), Swimming championships for Australia. They are organised by Swimming Australia and separate championships are held annually in both long course (50m) and Short course (swimmin ...

. She also won the ''Gladstone skiff'' rowing event, which she was using a form of training for the upcoming

and was by then described as "an outstanding backstroke swimmer". In January 1962, Costin lowered the Australian record in backstroke for the second time within three days, with a time of 1 minute 12.5 seconds, just 1.55 seconds short of the record held by British swimmer Nancy Stewart. She was described that year by Australian

freestyle swimmer Freestyle is a category of swimming competition, defined by the rules of World Aquatics, in which competitors are subject to only a few limited restrictions on their swimming stroke. Freestyle races are the most common of all swimming competit ...

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 ...

as being "undoubtedly Australia's best stylist in backstroke". In October 1962, when Costin was a member of the Australian swimming squad training for the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, she set two new Australian records in the women's and

backstroke Backstroke or back crawl is one of the four Swimming (sport), swimming styles used in competitive events regulated by FINA, and the only one of these styles swum on the back. This swimming style has the advantage of easy breathing, but the disa ...

. At this time, she was being coached by Bruce McDonald. Earlier that month, she had come within one second of the world 220-yard record. She represented Australia in the

, finishing 5th in each of the and backstroke events with a time of 1:12.4 and 2:38.6 in each respectively. Two years later, she failed to quality for 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 and subsequently decided to retire from competitive swimming. As of 2005, her backstroke record set in 1958/59 at the ''Parramatta City Swimming Club'' for girls aged 16 years remained unbeaten.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Costin, Sue 1944 births 1971 deaths Australian female backstroke swimmers Suicides in New South Wales 1971 suicides Australian sportspeople who committed suicide Suicides by poison Swimmers from Sydney Sportswomen from New South Wales Swimmers at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games swimmers for Australia 20th-century Australian sportswomen

Life and career

Swimming

See also

References