Hayley Lewis
Olympic Swimming Hero, Businesswoman
Profile
Hayley Lewis burst onto the scene as a 15-year-old schoolgirl, capturing the hearts of Australians by winning 5 Gold medals at the 1990 Auckland Commonwealth Games. Backing up a year later, she went on to become one of Australia’s youngest-ever World Champions by winning the 200m freestyle at the Perth World Championships.
In 1992, at her first Olympics in Barcelona, Hayley brought home a Silver and a Bronze followed by more medals at the 93 Pan Pacific, the 1994 Commonwealth Games, 95 Rome World Championships and the 96 Atlanta Olympics.
Taking a break from swimming after Atlanta, Hayley married her high school sweetheart Greg Taylor in 1997 and the following year gave birth to their first son, Jacob.
In 1999, she returned to swimming to make the 2000 Olympic team which she did, as well as the 2001 World Championships in Fukuoka which saw her become the first-ever swimmer to compete for her country in both open water and pool swimming at the same meet. Hayley went on to win a bronze medal at this meet and officially retired upon returning home at 27.
In sharing per passion for swimming she opened a LEARN TO SWIM school at Westfield Carindale in 2002, the first for an Australian shopping centre.
Changing pace, she went on to host five seasons of The Biggest Loser Australia between 2010 and 2014, write a business book – ‘Dream, Believe, Create’ and purchase a commercial property in Balmoral, Brisbane which has been home to her gift and homewares store ‘Coming Up Roses’ for over 10 years.
In between her role as an inspirational speaker and endeavours of becoming a qualified psychologist, Hayley continues to be the very proud mum of her two boys, Jacob (23) and Kai (18) who is currently in pursuit of his own success in the Olympic swimming pool.
Feedback
Hayley was great and very well received. She is a lovely person who really was interesting to listen to. Our ladies loved her!
Hayley's session was enjoyed by all of our delegates as ensured that her speech was on topic and of interest to our audience. She was very humble and accommodating to our delegates who were very enthusiastic to meet with her and have photos taken - Hayley was very obliging.
Hayley was easy to work with from the brief through to the session at our event. I would highly recommend her to other event organisers.
