Recovery ‐ Newsletter of the GBS Association of NSW
September 2016
Vale Forbes Carlile MBE
On August 2 our Patron, Ursula Carlile, lost her husband
of 58 years Forbes at the age of 95 after a short illness.
Forbes lived an amazing life. He was an amazing man.
including among others Shane Gould, Karen Moras, Gail
Neall, John Davies, John Ryan and Ian O'Brien. In
1972, 15-year-old Gould held world records
simultaneously in the 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1500
metres freestyle and the 200m individual medley.
Born in Armadale Victoria in 1921,
he attended Neutral Bay Public
School from 1926 until 1932.
During this time, he swam Sydney
Harbour pools and Clifton Garden
Pool. To improve his academic
standards Forbes was sent as a
boarder to Scots College in 1935,
where he attended until 1939.
Forbes’ first book ‘Forbes Carlile on Swimming’ was
published in 1963. Other books by Forbes followed: ‘A
History of Crawl Stroke Techniques to the 1960s: An
Australian Perspective’ and ‘A History of Australian
Swimming Training’.
In 1977, Forbes was awarded an MBE and was inducted
into the International Swimming Hall of Fame. Other
awards include the Queens Jubilee Medal (1977), Sport
Australia Hall of Fame(1989), ASI Life Member (2003)
and NSSA Hall of Fame (2003).
Studying University of Sydney under Professor Frank
Cotton, Forbes graduated with a Master of
Science degree and later lectured there in human
physiology. His pioneering work on elite athlete training
methods included interval workouts, pace clocks (a
commonplace training tool today) and log books, heart
rate tests, training under stress and T Wave studies of
the ventricles. He developed techniques such as evenpaced swimming and the use of two-beat kicks for longdistance events.
“To swim well is an asset for life”
He first started coaching in 1946 at the Palm Beach rock
pool. Success there led to him being appointed as the
Australian swimming coach for the 1948 London
Olympics. In 1952 Forbes represented Aus tralia at the
Helsinki Olympics competing in the first Olympic Modern
Pentathlon, (3000m run, 200m swim, pistol shooting,
equestrian and fencing). He finished 25th in a field of 51
and remains the only person to have coached and later
competed at the Olympic Games.
On the 5th June all of the swimmers at the 2016 Carlile
Speedo Cup presented Forbes and Ursula a large cake
to celebrate their 95th and 80th birthdays.
Forbes made a huge
contribution not only to
Australian swimming, but
to swimming world-wide.
His famous quote “To swim
well is an asset for life” will
live on, as will the
innovations he and Ursula
intoduced to the sport.
He was appointed as Australia’s head coach again at
the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and Scientific Advisor in
the 1960 Rome Olympics. At the 1964 Games he was
head coach for the Dutch Olympic team. He was head
Australian swimming coach at the Swimming World
Championships in Belgrade in 1973 which produced
nine Australian World Champions.
Carlile Swimming provides
swimming programs for all
ages, from babies to Olympians, employing over 600
staff across 11 swim centres.
The GBS Association of NSW would like to extend our
deepest sympathy to Ursula.
Together with his wife Ursula and their assistant, Tom
Green, he produced many notable Olympic swimmers
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