Shane Gould - Background

Background

Shane Gould was born in Sydney, Australia, on the first day of competition of the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. She moved to Fiji with her family at the age of 18 months. By the age of six, she was a competent swimmer. She attended primary school at St. Peters Lutheran College, Brisbane, where a sporting house is named after her, and secondary school at Turramurra High School, Sydney where a sporting house is also named after her and fellow Olympian Gail Neall. She was trained by leading coaches Forbes and Ursula Carlile and their assistant Tom Green, and won all her world swimming titles when a teenager, travelling widely.

Gould spent most of the years after ending competitive swimming out of the public eye. She married Neil Innes at 18, became a Christian, and lived on a working farm near Margaret River, southwestern Australia. She farmed, and taught horseriding and surfing, making very few public appearances. She has four children, and now three grandchildren.

Her marriage ended after 22 years, coinciding with a return to public life, and she married Milton Nelms in 2007. She now divides her time between Bicheno, Tasmania and Sydney, coaches swimmers, and still swims in Masters competitions.

Gould returned to study in the late 2000s. She studied at the Sydney Film School (2007, Cert IV documentary film, Digital Filmmaking) and was awarded a Master of Environmental Management (2010, with a thesis on the social uses and functions of public swimming pools), and Master of Contemporary Art (2012, with a video piece Loops and Lines). Both degrees are from the University of Tasmania.