Susan Costin
Australian backstroke champion
I swam every morning and afternoon at Granville pool. When you’re
young, it’s your social life as well, it’s all-consuming. We had fun and none of
us regretted the training schedule.’
Susan Costin (born 1944) is the daughter of Australian rowing champion Angela
Mann. After the Costins moved to Baulkham Hills in 1954, Susan and her sister
Prudence began swimming at Granville pool, and competing with the Parramatta
City Amateur Swimming Club.
Susan won her first Western Sydney title in 1959. She represented
NSW at the Australian championships in 1960, and a string of record-breaking
swims followed. At the 1961 State championships, Susan won both the 110 yards
(beating Ilsa Konrads) and 220 yards open backstroke titles. At the Australian
championships in Brisbane a month later, Susan clocked the fastest time for a
resident Australian swimmer for her win in the 110 yards backstroke.
At the 1962 State championships, Susan set new Australian and NSW
records in the 110 yards backstroke, and a NSW record in the 220 yards
backstroke. That year Ilsa Konrads said that Susan was ‘undoubtedly Australia’s
best stylist in backstroke’. She represented Australia at the 1962 British
Empire and Commonwealth Games in Perth, but retired from competition after her
omission from the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games swim team. The Parramatta City
Swimming Club record for girls (16 years) 50 metres backstroke set by Susan in
1958/59, remained unbroken in 2005.
1. Susan Costin at Granville, aged 11.
2. Susan Costin, Australian swimming championships, Brisbane
1961.
3. Susan Costin, Australian swimming championships, Brisbane
1961.
4. Susan at a Parramatta City Swimming Club awards night
5. Susan with Parramatta City Swimming Club coach Bruce McDonald,
1961.
6. Susan (left) Costin, 15 and her sister Prudence, aged ten, at
a Parramatta City Swimming Club awards night.
7. Susan Costin and English swimmer Linda Ludgrove at the 1962
Commonwealth Games in Perth.
All photos courtesy of
Susan Bridie
| 
