Ms Susie O’Neil OAM

2000

Honorary award citation

At the 5pm ceremony on Friday, December 1, Susan O'Neill, OAM, will receive a Doctor of Philosophy honoris causa for her outstanding contribution to sport in Australia. A medallist at three consecutive Olympic Games and three consecutive Commonwealth Games, she holds the world record for the 200m butterfly event - a record which previously stood for 18 years.

Her Olympic achievements in butterfly, freestyle and relay events include a bronze medal in Barcelona (1992); Australia's best individual tally of a gold, a silver and a bronze medal in Atlanta (1996); and one gold and two silver medals in Sydney (2000).

She won 10 gold medals at three successive Commonwealth Games in 1990, 1994 and 1988, including an exceptional tally of six golds in 1998; and she has 35 Australian Open Championship gold medals to her credit - the most ever awarded to a swimmer. This surpasses Sir Frank Beaurepaire's record of 33, set in the 1920s.

She was honoured with the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1997 and after the Olympic Games in Sydney was voted to an eight-year term on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after placing third among 10,000 Games competitors in a ballot for eight athlete positions on the Committee. Only two other Australians are currently among the 128 members of the IOC.
 

Awards

Doctor of Philosophy honoris causa
2000