Sylvia Lewis

Backstroke swimmer Sylvia Lewis won the 1957 English Schools senior backstroke title. Despite that early promise, however, she never won a senior ASA title, but did enjoy five podium finishes in the 110 yards. She was runner-up four times between 1958-63 to some of the great British women´s backstroke swimmers of the day; Judy Grinham, Margaret Edwards, and Linda Ludgrove. Lewis lost by a fingernail to Ludgrove in the 1963 final.

Despite never having won an international cap at the time, Lewis was selected for the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games. One month before the Cardiff Games, however, she was selected to represent her country against France, when Anita Lonsbrough also made her international début.

Having swam the 110 yards at Cardiff in 1958, Lewis took part in both backstroke events at Perth, Australia four years later, and won silver in the 220 and bronze in the 110. She competed in the 1960 and 1964 Olympics, with a best individual finish of sixth in the 100 metres at Tokyo, where she also finished fifth with the 4 x 100 medley relay squad. Lewis took part in the 1962 European Championships in Leipzig and reached the 100 metres final, finishing seventh. Ludgrove was fifth. Lewis was originally a telephonist before becoming a Hounslow ambulance driver. She married Jim Raffell in 1966.