After the Australia Day celebrations, Walgett Shire mayor Bill Murray and Councillor Ian Woodcock took the WSC Australia Day Ambassador Sandra Morgan-Beavis on a tour of the Lightning Ridge area.
One of the stops was the Olympic Pool Centre and Diving Pool.
Ms Morgan-Beavis was so impressed with the centre. She said in her early days of swimming there weren’t any heated pools and she would travel from Sydney to Townsville for training in the winter. She then went on to talk to the divers and swimmers, coaches and parents.
There were some wild questions from the tiny tots of the swim club, but she answered them all.
Ms Morgan-Beavis said she loved to put the message to the youth, she said she has a love for Australia. Ms Morgan-Beavis was the youngest Australian Olympic swimmer to win a gold medal. She said one day you were an ordinary person, the next a gold medallist.
Ms Morgan-Beavis still has the Olympic Torch she ran with in 1956 and said her gold medal is locked away in a safe.
She went on to say “some of us have a gift and we need to follow that gift to achieve our dream”.
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