hiatus from swim coaching in 1975 to support his wife (and former swimmer) Jocelyn, after the birth of his daughter Jane. Lawrence returned to elite coaching with great success. Lawrence was one of the Australian Olympic swimming team coaches for the Los Angeles in 1984, Seoul in 1988 and Barcelona in 1992. His best known protégés include Steve Holland, Tracey Wickham, Jon Sieben and Duncan Armstrong. His Olympic coaching achievements include 10 gold, 11 silver and 12 bronze medals from swimmers he has directly assisted. Swimmers he has coached boast 23 world records. He also coached Australian swimmers at the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane and the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh. Lawrence's involvement with Australian Olympic swimming continued at Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 Olympic Games with a brief to unite, inspire, motivate and relax the entire team. He has legendary success in securing non-existent tickets to enable Australian athletes to attend events in support of fellow Australians. His personal best is smuggling 150 athletes into the Australia vs United States basketball game when he actually only had 20 tickets. Other interests In 1988, Lawrence launched a Kids Alive Drowning Prevention Campaign to combat the problem of accidental death by drowning in the under five age group. With support from the Federal Government and community service advertising, the program runs nationally. He has researched, documented and developed a program which is now internationally recognised Lawrence is also a motivational speaker. Family Lawrence married Jocelyn in 1974. They have three children: Jane, Kate and Emma, all of whom are employed at the Laurie Lawrence Swim School in Brisbane. Honours Lawrence was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1991 and received an Australian Sports Medal in 2000. See also List of members of the International Swimming Hall of Fame References External links 1941 births Living people Australian swimming coaches Australian Olympic coaches Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductees Sportspeople from Townsville Recipients of the Australian Sports Medal