Born Perth, Western Australia
3 August 1961
Shelley Taylor-Smith, born in Perth on August 3, 1961 is synonymous with Western Australian open water swimming. Taylor-Smith won a world championship in Perth in 1991 in the inaugural women’s open water 25km event, a feat she went close to replicating when she won bronze at the world titles in Rome, three years later in 1994.
Her first major achievement came in 1983, when she broke the world four-mile record, adding to an impressive career of achievements that also includes five titles at the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim with a world record time of five hours, 45 minutes and 25 seconds in her 1995 success.
Taylor-Smith’s record is all the more remarkable given the obstacles she’s overcome that include; growing up with scoliosis, being diagnosed in 1998 with chronic fatigue syndrome and surviving a life threatening case of Giardia lamblia infection from prolonged exposure to polluted water.
She is an icon of WA swimming and a worthy inductee into the Western Australian Hall of Champions.