Stuff the Silver, we are Going for Gold
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Laurie tells the story of Jon Sieben, a young kid who at 17 years of age won the Olympic gold medal in the 200m butterfly, beating not 1 but 2 world record holders.
Of all the young swimmers Laurie has coached over the years, Laurie believes that no one has ever attacked his Olympic dream with more intelligence or purpose than Jon Sieben. In this story, Laurie speaks of 2 different morals that he believes provides the basis for success.
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In this episode Laurie Lawrence interviews Steve Holland, the greatest distance swimmer Laurie believes the world has ever seen. With Laurie as his coach, Steve (at only 15 years of age) broke world records on numerous occasions.
Laurie and Steve speak of their journey together from “shy skinny nervous kid” to the youngest ever world record holder.
This episode is brought to you by Swimming Australia.
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In this episode, Laurie tells the story of Steve Holland; OAM, Commonwealth Games Champion & Olympic Medalist. With Laurie as his coach, 15-year-old Steve broke the world record for 800m and 1500m freestyle – both in the same race.
From a “shy, skinny, nervous kid” to world record holder and champion, this is Steve’s story as told by Laurie Lawrence.
Book reference: Lawrence of Australia, Chapter 18 “Stanley – Steve Holland”
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In this episode, Laurie tells us the story of Duncan Armstrong, Commonwealth Games and Olympic Champion, and Order of Australia Recipient. Duncan, coached by Laurie Lawrence, won Olympic gold at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.
Laurie takes us back to Duncan’s teens where his swimming career started at A.C.I. Lawrence Swimming Club. He recounts Duncan’s relentless pursuit of Olympic gold.
Book reference: Lawrence of Australia, Chapter 13 “Doing What the Opposition Won’t – Duncan Armstrong”
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Debbie Flintoff-King is a Commonwealth Games and Olympic Games athlete, Order of Australia Recipient and Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductee. In her career, Debbie won gold at the 1988 Seoul Olympics plus a total of seven medals over three Commonwealth Games appearances.
In this episode, Laurie takes us back to 1990 when Debbie was preparing for the Auckland Commonwealth Games, striving to realise her dream of winning three consecutive Commonwealth Games gold medals.
Book reference: Lawrence of Australia, Chapter 12 “A True Champion – Debbie Flintoff-King”
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Long-distance freestyle swimmer, Julie McDonald, was coached by Laurie throughout her career. Julie debuted at the 1986 commonwealth Games, securing a silver medal in the 800-metre freestyle.
In 1987 at the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Brisbane, Julie came head to head with world-record holder, Janet Evans. This episode is a blow by blow account of the lead up to this highly anticipated 1987 race and Laurie’s pool-side perspective of the battle.
Book reference: Lawrence of Australia, Chapter 5 “Belief – Jules”
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It all started with a crying four-year-old Glenn Buchanan, learning to swim in a baby pool in Townsville, alongside his hesitant swim coach, Laurie Lawrence.
Fast forward to 1984, and Laurie has a front-row seat to Glenn’s bronze medal performance at the LA Olympics. Laurie passionately takes you back to where it all began for Glenn and the journey that led them both to the world stage.
Book reference: Lawrence of Australia, Chapter 4 “One Step at a Time – Glenn Buchanan”
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As the old adage goes, Never Judge a Book by its Cover. And that couldn’t be any truer when it came to Australian breaststroke swimmer, Peter Evans. This unassuming swimmer won four Olympic gold medals throughout his career and two Commonwealth Games bronze.
Along with teammate, Neil Brooks, they formed part of the ‘Quietly Confident Quartet who are synonymous with the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Peter was a natural-born competitor and Laurie recounts the story of how Evans’ unconventional training habits still lead him to enormous success in the water.
Book reference: Lawrence of Australia, Chapter 2 “Never Judge a Book by its Cover”
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In 1993 I published my first book of short stories and it was called Lawrence of Australia. It was just short stories of people that I met at the Olympic Games or kids that I’d coached to Olympic Games teams or indeed Olympic gold medals.
The dedication of the front of the book read ‘Citius, Altius, Fortius. This book is dedicated to every young athlete who dares to dream the Olympic dream of faster… higher…stronger’.
I’ve been thinking about it and I thought, I’d love to read these chapters so that I can share them on a podcast. The first one is The Beginning – Helen Gray. A thirteen-year-old girl that I coached and she made the Australian Commonwealth Games team. She went on to get a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in Scotland. A great effort for a young kid.
Book reference: Lawrence of Australia, Chapter 1 “The Beginning – Helen Gray”
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Welcome to the Laurie Lawrence podcast stuff, the silver we are going for gold. This podcast came about by me wanting to value add to my online swim teacher and coaching platform worldwideswimschool.com.
It was simply an idea that I’d read and share chapters of the two books that I’d written about my eight Olympic Games adventures, and when I run out of chapters, I’d interview some of the great sportsmen and sportswomen that I’d encountered over the 50 years of my international coaching career.
The podcast is not meant to be a quick fix to get us achieving. It’s simply meant to be a help, a guide, a companion in the tough times. I wanted to share and show that dreams are important and we must hold onto those dreams. However, without hard work, those dreams are only fantasies.
The perfect result is when we dream and then make those dreams come true.
Only an individual with persistence and dedication, can make a dream come true. The choice becomes yours. If you want the edge in life or in sport, there are no shortcuts. You must work hard. Make tough decisions, sacrifice and march daily towards your goal. One step at a time.
If you are serious about winning, you must prepare to win. Enjoy the podcast. Tell your friends if it helps one person expand their lives a little or achieve their dreams, it will have served the purpose. If it doesn’t do this, try at least to remember the harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.
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