Doris Storey

Doris Storey took a job as a machinist early in life, although her true passion since childhood had been swimming. A member of the East Leeds Swimming club, she was 17 when she made her first international appearance at the 1936 Summer Olympics, where she finished sixth in the 200m breaststroke competition after having suffered an arm injury shortly before the race. She was more successful, however, at the 1938 British Empire Games in Sydney, winning gold medals in the in the 220 yard breaststroke and 3×110 yards medley events for England, the latter alongside Lorna Frampton and Margery Hinton. Later that year she also took a silver medal in the 200m breaststroke competition at the 1938 European Championships, and she eventually set a world record in the event. She qualified to attend the 1948 Summer Olympics, still holding the record in the 200m breaststroke, but was rejected because the selectors at the trials believed that she had “family commitments” towards her husband and two year-old son. After her swimming career ended, she ran a fish and chips store with her husband. Her picture was hung in Hall of Fame section of the North Sydney Olympic Pool in October 2005, a few days prior to her death.