Melanie Schlanger

1. Melanie Schlanger Olympic Swimmer 50m, 100m and 200m Freestyle Events Photo Source: Nicholas Falconer “Melanie Schlanger was the unheralded comeback success story of the 2012 Olympic Trials.” Australian Olympic Committee

2. Melanie Schlanger – The Facts • Name: Melanie Renae Schlanger • Born: 31 August 1986, Sunshine Coast, QLD • Lives: Southport, QLD • Height: 176cm • Weight: 66kg • Club: Southport Olympic SC • Coach: Glenn Baker • Stroke: Freestyle • Events: 100m, 200m and 50m Freestyle

3. Melanie Schlanger – The Bio Melanie Renae Schlangerwas born 31 August 1986 in Queensland. She is an Australian freestyle swimmer who has experienced both incredible highs and devastating lows throughout her career. Melanie was a late starter to the world of swimming, only starting at the age of 14! However, with only six years in the sport, Melanie proved she really had talent and, coupled with her incredible desire to push herself to the limit, a new force in Australian swimming had emerged. Melanie’s Australian team debut in 2006 at the Pan Pacific Championships in Canada earmarked her as a serious threat in the pool, as she bagged three bronze medals in the 100m, 4x100m and 4x200m events. In 2007, only her second year of elite international competition, Melanie was integral to the 4x100m Australian relay team that won gold at the 2007 World Championships. Further to that, she again wowed the nation as a member of the Australian World Record breaking 4x100m short course freestyle relay team. Melanie’s relentless and gutsy efforts in the pool paid off with selection in the Beijing Olympics Australian Swim Team. Her blistering performance in the third leg of the 4x100m freestyle relay was the reason Australia took home the bronze medal. She also bagged a gold after swimming in the 4x200m heats and the final quartet won in World Record time.

4. Melanie Schlanger – The Comeback However, Melanie’s incredible successes were at a price, when the following year she developed a glandularfever-like illness called ‘Cytomegalovirus’. It was unrelenting and exhausting, forcing Melanie out of the 2009 Australian Trials and, eventually, out of the pool entirely. Melanie’s announcement of early retirement was an incredible disappointment for the Australian swimming world, and one of the most difficult decisions of Melanie’s life. Melanie soon realised she still held a flame for the sport, after a stint of social swimming with a friend. With her health regained, ten months into her retirement, Melanie made another life-changing decision to return to the pool. A fresh start at the Southport Olympic Swimming Club with world renowned couch Glenn Baker reignited her passion for the sport, and the results showed. By the end of the 2011 swimming season, Melanie had returned to an internationally competitive standard, finishing in the top ten fastest freestyle swimmers in the world. With so many swimmers making their largely acclaimed come-backs, Melanie quietly maintained her focus and her remarkable resolve paid off at the London 2012 Olympic Games. As part of the 4x100m freestyle relay team, Melanie won Australia’s first Gold medal of the Games. She then went on to win Silver medals in the 4x200m freestyle relay and 4x100m medley relay.

5. Melanie Schlanger –The Accolades YEAR EVENT LOCATION RESULTS 2012 Olympic Games London, UK GOLD 4x100m Freestyle SILVER 4x200m Freestyle SILVER 4x100m Medley 2012 Australian Swimming Adelaide, Australia GOLD 100m Freestyle Championships 2008 Olympic Games Beijing, China BRONZE 4x100m Freestyle GOLD 4x200m Freestyle (heat swim) 2007 World Championships Melbourne, Australia GOLD 4x100m Freestyle 2007 Duel in the Pool (vs USA) Sydney, Australia GOLD 4x100m Freestyle 2006 Pan Pacific Championships Victoria, BC, Canada BRONZE 100m Freestyle

6. Melanie Schlanger – The Press Fab four get Australia off the mark with upset win Stathi PaxinosMarch 26, 2007 AUSTRALIAN relay coach Shannon Rollason last week declared that the women's 4x100 freestyle relay team needed a miracle to retain its title at the world championships in Melbourne. Last night, the women delivered just that, saying they drew on the great Australian fighting spirit and the emergence of Mel Schlanger to snatch the gold. All the pre-championship talk had been focused on the battle between world record-holders Germany and the powerful US unit, and even the Australians had been putting out vibes that they were one or two top-quality sprinters short of challenging the big two in the absence of Olympic and 2005 world title winning team member Alice Mills. But Libby Lenton, Schlanger, Shayne Reese and Jodie Henry turned the script on its head to give the swimming team its first gold medal of the championships. Photo Source: Getty Images Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/news/swimming/golden-girls-get-australia-off-the-mark/2007/03/25/1174761279483.html

7. Melanie Schlanger – The Press Champion Melanie Schlanger in love with pool again Steve Larkin AAP March 21, 2012 2:55pm AUSTRALIA'S new freestyle champion Melanie Schlanger has hated swimming twice. The first was when as a schoolgirl she forged a note to her teachers so could get out of swim lessons, but got caught.

The second came after winning two medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics: floored by illness, she quit and never intended to swim again.
 Photo Source: Tony Phillips But as the high-profile comebacks of Ian Thorpe, Libby Trickett and Michael Klim dominated the Olympic trials in Adelaide, Schlanger made her own quiet return.
And she ended up winning the 100m freestyle to secure an individual swim at the London Games.

Four years ago in Beijing, Schlanger won a gold medal for her heat swim in Australia's triumphant 4x200m freestyle relay and a bronze medal as part of Australia's 4x100m relay team. But within a year, she had contracted a glandular fever-like illness, Cytomegalovirus… Read more: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/london-olympics/champion-melanie-schlanger-in-love-with-pool-again/story-fn9dirj0-1226306304556

8. Melanie Schlanger – The Press Schlanger makes the days count Gordon Clark 19 April 2012 Melanie Schlanger might not be a household name in Australian sport, but a medal on day one of the London Olympics could change all that. Having taken out the 100m freestyle at the national championships in Adelaide last month, Schlanger will anchor the 4x100m freestyle relay team in London. The heats and final of that event are scheduled for day one of the games. The Sunshine Coaster, part of the Aussie 4x100m team that won gold at the 2007 world championships in world-record time, before following up with a bronze medal in the same event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, said taking part in yesterday's official "100-day countdown to the Games" celebrations on the Gold Coast made her realise how close London was. "It definitely wakened the desire to get there and get started," Schlanger said. "I remember the 100 days to Beijing event and how quickly that time went." The 25-year-old leaves for a month-long high-altitude training camp in Mexico on Saturday and will compete in a Grand Prix event in Canberra in late June before flying out to London on July 13. "I'm trying not to count the days, but trying to make the days count," she said. Read more: http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/story/2012/04/19/schlanger-makes-the-days-count/

9. Melanie Schlanger – The Press Aussie relay team lands our first London gold with stunning victory Richard Hinds SMH July 29, 2012 When the cauldron was lit by seven anonymous young athletes, the themes of co-operation and generational change for these Olympics were forged. Appropriately, both would play a part in Australia's first gold medal of these games, a stunning, yet somehow endearingly relaxed victory by the women's 4x100m freestyle relay team. Photo Source: John South The spirit of co-operation between Alicia Coutts, Cate Campbell, Brittany Elmslie and Melanie Schlanger is partly the consequence of their shared Queensland heritage. The three older members of the team, Coutts, Campbell and Schlanger, grew up competing, and feeding off each other's talent. ''We are like family,'' said Coutts. ''Like you said, we have grown up together. I haven't raced Britt so much because she is so young. But the other girls I have been racing for a long time. Yes, it's like a little Queensland family.'’ If the maroon blood was already thicker than the chlorinated water, the bond between four smiling assassins was sealed in the marshalling area before the race. With the Dutch heavily favoured, and the US also tough to beat, the Australians had been told by their coaches to enjoy the moment... Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/olympics/swimming-london-2012/aussie-relay-team-lands-our-first-london-gold-with-stunning-victory-20120729-234sh.html

10. Melanie Schlanger – Out of the Pool • Nickname: Mel, Melly, Schlangs • Favourite food: Chicken schnitzel • Studied: Biomedical Science (2009) • Hobbies: Collecting DVDs and creating websites • Pets: Two dogs, Meeko and Kalani • Melanie is a self-confessed technology geek and is dating fellow Olympian, Chris Wright.

11. Melanie Schlanger – The Contact • Damian Triffitt, Managing Director • Six Sides Management Group • Suite 808, 147 Pirie Street • Adelaide SA 5000 • +61 8 8223 6664 • +61 (0) 410 512 575 • damian@ssmg.com.au • www.ssmg.com.au Photo Source: Australian Olympic Committee