Clare Dennis

Clare Dennis, christened Clara and later known by her married name Clare Golding, was an Australian breaststroke swimmer of the 1930s, born on 7 March 1916 in Burwood, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, and died on 5 June 1971. She was taught to swim by her father at Clovelly Beach, switched from freestyle to breaststroke at thirteen, and won her first state and national title in the 220 yard breaststroke in 1931. In January 1932 she broke the 200 metre breaststroke world record, which earned her automatic selection for the Australian Olympic team at the age of fifteen. At the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles she won the gold medal in the 200 metre breaststroke, finishing a tenth of a second ahead of Japan's Hideko Maehata, after changing her stroke on the advice of the American swimmer Buster Crabbe. She remained unbeaten in national breaststroke races until her retirement in 1936.