Alice Mary Tait (née Mills) OAM (born 23 May 1986 in Brisbane, Queensland) is a former Australian sprint freestyle, butterfly and individual medley swimmer who represented Australia at the 2004 Athens Olympics, winning two relay gold medals. Tait announced her retirement from the sport in June 2012.
Trained by her coach Shannon Rollason at the Chandler Sports Complex along with her good friend Jodie Henry, Tait was selected to make her international debut at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, at the age of 16, where she collected a gold in the 4x100 m freestyle relay, as well as competing in the finals of the 50 m freestyle and 200 m individual medley. She repeated this at the 2002 Pan Pacific Championships in Yokohama, Japan.
2003 saw a big improvement in Tait's performance on the international stage, when she grabbed two silver medals at the 2003 World Swimming Championships in Barcelona, Spain in the 200 m individual medley and 50 m freestyle, breaking the Commonwealth record in the former and the Australian record in the latter. She also collected a silver and bronze in the 4x200 m and 4x100 m freestyle relays respectively.
2004 was a somewhat mixed year for Tait. She was beaten into 3rd place at the Australian trials in both the 50 m and 100 m freestyle, meaning that she was forced to watch these events from the stands. However, along with teammates Libby Lenton, Petria Thomas, and Jodie Henry, she won gold with a world record time in the women's 4x100 meter relay; 3min 35.94s. Later, she performed much slower than her previous best in the 200 m individual medley, being eliminated in the final. She admitted that she had been distracted by the earlier relay triumph. She also picked up a gold by swimming in the heats for the victorious 4x100 m medley relay team.
Tait started 2005 by relocating to the Australian Institute of Sport along with Rollason and Henry. She started the year strongly, winning the 50 m and 100 m freestyle at the Australian championships, both in new personal best times, the former in Commonwealth record time. She also qualified in the 50 m butterfly in second place, and came third in the 100 m butterfly( but was not selected as each country is restricted to two entries, despite being ranked third in the world), all in new personal best times. However, she had a form slump at the 2005 World Swimming Championships in Montreal, Canada, swimming much slower than at the selection trials, and missing the medals. She collected a gold medal as part of the 4x100 m freestyle relay team.
In 2006, Tait qualified and competed at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. She won bronze in the 50 m and 100 m freestyle behind Libby Lenton and Jodie Henry and in the 50 m butterfly behind Danni Miatke and Jessicah Schipper. She combined with Henry, Lenton and Shayne Reese to claim gold in the 4x100 m freestyle relay.
In late 2006, Tait missed selection for the 2007 World Aquatics Championships. She was part of the bronze medal-winning Australian team in the 4x100m freestyle relay at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
On 26 January 2005, Tait was awarded the Medal of Order of Australia for "service to sport as a Gold Medallist at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games".
Tait is married to the former Scottish swimmer Gregor Tait.
Famous quotes containing the word alice:
“Glorious bouquets and storms of applause ... are the trimmings which every artist naturally enjoys. But to move an audience in such a role, to hear in the applause that unmistakable note which breaks through good theatre manners and comes from the heart, is to feel that you have won through to life itself. Such pleasure does not vanish with the fall of the curtain, but becomes part of one’s own life.”
—Dame Alice Markova (b. 1910)