The Adelaide girl, who was born in Perth, was known as Australia’s premier female breaststroker throughout the 1990s.
A tiny 11 hundredths of a second stood between Helen Denman and a World Championship gold medal in the 100m breaststroke at the World Swimming Championships in Perth in 1998.
Kristy Kowal from the USA won in 1:08:42 while Helen Denman of Adelaide, Australia touched the wall in 1:08:51, a tiny margin of nine-hundredths of a second.
Perhaps inspired by the partisan crowd, it was a personal best time for the 22-year-old Australian.
The Adelaide girl, who was born in Perth, was known as Australia’s premier female breaststroker throughout the 1990s.
She qualified for her first international team at the Australian Championships in 1996, after winning the 100-metre breaststroke.
At the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Helen placed 11th in the 100-metre breaststroke, but fellow Australian Samantha Riley won the bronze medal.
This meant that Denman swum the breaststroke leg in the heats of the 4×100-metre medley relay.
Alongside fellow South Australian, Sarah Ryan, Helen Denman helped put Australia’s 4x100m medley relay team into the 1996 Olympic final in which Australia won a silver medal behind the USA.
Helen’s place in the final was taken by Olympic medallist Samantha Riley.
At the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur in 1998, Helen Denman won a gold medal in the individual 100m breaststroke, followed in second place by, ironically, Samantha Riley.
Determined to extend her career after being omitted from the Australian team in 1999, Helen Denman committed to training intensively for a comeback for the 2000 Olympics in her home country.
While this plan was unsuccessful, Helen Denman is widely regarded as Australia’s best breaststroker of the 1990s, inspiring youngsters nation-wide to take up the stroke, and as such she has been inducted into Swimming SA’s Hall of Fame.
