Gail Neall

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Olympic medal record
Women’s Swimming
Gold	1972 Munich	400m individual medley

Gail Neall (born August 2, 1955 in Sydney), known as Gail Yeoh after marriage, is an Australian former medley swimmer who raced in the 1970s. She won a gold medal in the 400m individual medley at the 1972 Munich in world record time.

[edit] Career

She was a schoolmate of fellow Munich gold medal winning swimmer Shane Gould at Turramurra High School on the north shore of Sydney.

Early in her career, Neall was coached by Forbes Carlile, and she concentrated on the butterfly event. However, she switched to being a medley swimmer, despite difficulties with the breaststroke leg. At her international debut in the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Scotland, she claimed a silver medal in the 400m individual medley, finishing more than five seconds behind fellow Australian Denise Langford.

In 1971, she switched to the coaching of Don Talbot. In 1972, she was selected to compete at the 1972 Summer Olympics, in the 200m and 400 individual medley, and the 200m butterfly. Neall was considered an outsider, with Americans Jennifer Bartz, Lyn Vidali and Mary Montgomery, and Canadian Leslie Cliff fancied to take the gold medal. Neall initially contested the lead in the butterfly leg with Bartz and Vidali, before seizing a bodylength lead at the end of the backstroke leg. Despite being expected to falter in the breaststroke leg, Neall managed to maintain parity, and then held on in the freestyle leg to beat Cliff for the gold. Her time of 5m 02.97 was a new world record, and improved on her personal best by 7 seconds.

In the 200m butterfly event, Neall qualified for the final, but did not challenge the winner, Karen Moe, from the United States, who broke her own world record. Neall missed the final in the 200m individual medley.

At the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, New Zealand, Neall had faded from her peak performance at the Munich games. Although she won a bronze in the 200m individual medley, her performance in the 400m event was 10s slower than her best and left her last in the final.

[edit] References

• Andrews, Malcolm (2000). Australia at the Olympic Games.
• Howell, Max (1986). Aussie Gold.

Olympic champions in women's 400 m individual medley
1964: Donna de Varona | 1968: Claudia Kolb | 1972: Gail Neall | 1976: Ulrike Tauber | 1980: Petra Schneider | 1984: Tracy Caulkins | 1988: Janet Evans | 1992: Krisztina Egerszegi | 1996: Michelle Smith | 2000: Yana Klochkova | 2004: Yana Klochkova