Lucy Morton
Personal information | ||||||||||||||
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Full name | Lucy Morton | |||||||||||||
National team | Great Britain | |||||||||||||
Born | Knutsford, England | 23 February 1898|||||||||||||
Died | 26 August 1980 Blackpool, England | (aged 82)|||||||||||||
Sport | ||||||||||||||
Sport | Swimming | |||||||||||||
Strokes | Breaststroke | |||||||||||||
Medal record
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Lucy Morton (23 February 1898 – 26 August 1980), later known by her married name Lucy Heaton, was an English competition swimmer who represented Great Britain at the 1924 Summer Olympics and won a gold medal in the 200-metre breaststroke event.[1]
Morton was born in 1898 at New Tatton in Cheshire, her father Alfred was in domestic service as a groom.[2] The family moved to Blackpool and by the age of 10 Morton had joined the local amateur swimming club.[2] By 1920 Morton held the world record for the 200-yard breaststroke and in 1924 was chosen to be part of the British team at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris.[2] Morton won the women's 200-metre breaststroke race, and became the first British woman to win an Olympic gold medal for swimming in an individual (non-relay) event.[2]
Morton retired from competitive swimming after the Olympics and married Harry Heaton in 1927.[2] She continued supporting swimming events for the rest of her life serving as a competitors' steward when she was aged 72.[2] She died in Blackpool in 1980. She was inducted posthumously into the International Swimming Hall of Fame as an "Honor Pioneer Swimmer" in 1988.[3]
See also[]
- List of members of the International Swimming Hall of Fame
- List of Olympic medalists in swimming (women)
References[]
- ^ "Lucy Morton". Olympedia. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f Win Hayes, "Morton, Lucy (1898–1980)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press (October 2007). Retrieved 25 May 2015.
- ^ International Swimming Hall of Fame, Honourees, Lucy Morton (GBR). Retrieved 25 May 2015.
External links[]
- 1898 births
- 1980 deaths
- People from Knutsford
- English female swimmers
- Female breaststroke swimmers
- Olympic gold medallists for Great Britain
- Olympic swimmers of Great Britain
- Swimmers at the 1924 Summer Olympics
- Medalists at the 1924 Summer Olympics
- Olympic gold medalists in swimming