Leisel Jones OAM (b. 1985) is the first Australian swimmer to have competed at four Olympic Games and is one of world swimming's greatest ever breaststroke competitors. Born in the Northern Territory and raised in Brisbane, she was only fifteen when she won two silver medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, becoming one of Australia's youngest ever Olympic medallists. Having given up school to focus on swimming, she collected silver and gold medals at the world championships in Fukuoka, Japan in 2001. She won her first Olympic gold medal in Athens in 2004, and won the first of her eventual seven world titles at the world championships in Montreal in 2005. Named Female Swimmer of the Year for 2005 and World Swimmer of the Year for 2005 and 2006, Jones won three gold medals at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and two gold medals at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. After competing at the 2012 London Olympics, she announced her retirement from international swimming. Though illustrious, Jones' career was not without setbacks. In her 2015 memoir Body Lengths, she candidly discussed her history of anxiety, depression and her experience of the bullying and humiliation often endured by female swimmers around issues of weight and body image. Consequently, Jones has been an ambassador for Beyond Blue and was one of the faces of Swimming Queensland's 'Growing Up In Lycra' campaign. Jones was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2015.
