Legendary Aussie Coach of Goliath Slayers, Laurie Lawrence, Talks Career in Sport With Brett Hawke
Legendary Olympic coach Laurie Lawrence finally made his appearance on Inside With Brett Hawke to talk about his illustrious coaching career after numerous attempts at getting him on the pod. Lawrence was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1996 as he coached two Olympic gold medalists in Jon Sieben and Duncan Armstrong.
Lawrence went over his early beginnings in the sport of swimming, meeting the 1956 Australian Olympic team as a young boy, including Dawn Fraser, Jon Henricks, Lorraine Crapp and Murray Rose. Lawrence was a rugby player as a young boy and got involved with teaching kids to swim shortly after his sporting career was done. He explained how he picked the brains of coaching legends Forbes Carlile, Sherm Chavoor and Don Gambril and what he learned from them early on (11:00), including recounting specific stories of seeing swimming legends Debbie Meyer and Mike Burton in training.
Laurie Lawrence recounted a specific story of Stephen Holland winning the 1500 free at the 1973 Worlds at age 15 (16:00) where he broke two world records in one race, and miscounted and swam an extra lap. Holland went on to win bronze three years later at the 1976 Olympics in the 1500 in one of the great races of all-time as all three medalists finished under the existing world record (21:00), which Lawrence thinks could have been as fast as a 14:30, which is faster than the existing world record.
Lawrence went into detail about Jon Sieben (22:30), who scored one of the biggest upsets in Olympic history in the 200 butterfly in 1984, and how he was one of the best racers he had ever seen. Lawrence said he gave Sieben 40x50s butterfly every day in the leadup to the 1984 Games and that was what helped the 17-year-old win over Michael Gross in Los Angeles.
Laurie Lawrence reminisced on the 200 free final in 1988 when Duncan Armstrong scored another all-time upset over Matt Biondi and Michael Gross again (40:00) and how he taught him mental toughness, as well as how he concocted Armstrong’s iconic race strategy where he drafted off Biondi for 150 meters. Lawrence also famously had a big celebration in the stands (47:00) that has become famous in Australian sporting folklore.