Michelle Pearson
Australian swimmer, Olympic bronze medallist
Michelle Robyn Pearson (born 22 April 1962) is an Australian former medley and freestyle swimmer of the 1980s, who won a bronze medal in the 200-metre individual medley at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Her versatility saw her qualify for four finals.
Pearson made her international debut at the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, Canada, where she finalled in both the 200-metre and 400-metre individual medleys, finishing seventh and fifth respectively. She made her Olympic debut at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, where she was eliminated in the heats of the 100-metre freestyle. She was a part of the 4×100-metre freestyle relay team along with Lisa Curry, Rosemary Brown and Karen van de Graaf, which placed fifth in the final.
In 1981, Pearson became one of the first athletes in Australia to attend the newly established Australian Institute of Sport (AIS). Pearson attend the AIS until 1986 and was named AIS Athlete of the Year in 1985.
At the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, Pearson collected her first international medals, winning silver and bronze in the 400-metre and 200-metre individual medley respectively. Curry won both events.
Pearson had a good preparation for the 1984 Summer Olympics, after winning two events at the United States Championships as a guest competitor.
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This entry incorporates text from “Michelle Pearson” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.