Shelley Taylor-Smith, Date of Birth, Place of Birth

    

Shelley Taylor-Smith

Australian swimmer

Date of Birth: 03-Aug-1961

Place of Birth: Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Profession: swimmer, motivational speaker

Nationality: Australia

Zodiac Sign: Leo


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About Shelley Taylor-Smith

  • Shelley Taylor-Smith (born 3 August 1961) is a former Australian long-distance swimmer. Born in Perth, Western Australia, Taylor-Smith suffered from scoliosis, an abnormal curvature of the spine, throughout her school years.
  • The condition required her to wear a back brace, although she was successful in national age group swimming competitions.
  • While on a swimming scholarship to the University of Arkansas in the United States, the heavy training regime caused a lower-body paralysis.
  • During her recovery, her coach noticed that her swimming improved at greater distances, and encouraged her to take up marathon swimming, a sport which would also allow her to avoid potentially back-damaging tumble turns.Taylor-Smith's first major achievement was breaking the world four-mile record in 1983.
  • Subsequently, she won the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim five times, breaking the world record in 1995 for swimming the 48 km distance in five hours, 45 minutes and 25 seconds.
  • She also won the Australian Marathon Swimming Championships three times, and seven consecutive FINA Marathon World Cups.
  • She won a gold medal in the inaugural open water swimming event at the 1991 World Aquatics Championships in Perth, and a bronze at the 1994 Championships in Rome.Her autobiography, Dangerous When Wet: The Shelley Taylor-Smith Story (ISBN 1864480750) was published in 1996.In 1998, Taylor-Smith was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome after prolonged exposure to polluted water and Giardia lamblia infection, and was given six months to live.
  • She nonetheless went on to win her fifth consecutive Manhattan Island marathon, and then retired from swimming. Taylor-Smith currently lives in Perth, where she works as a motivational speaker for her company, Champion Mindset. In 1997, Transperth named a ferry the MV Shelley Taylor-Smith.

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