Swimming mourns a woman who ‘loved water’

Prominent former New Zealand swimming coach and Olympic medallist Jan Cameron has died, aged 70.

Cameron was working as recently as the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games last month as one of the Australian para-swimming team coaches.

Sydney-born Cameron, just 1.49m tall, won a silver medal alongside swimming legend Dawn Fraser in the 4x100m at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and followed that with three medals at the 1966 Commonwealth Games.

Cameron was instrumental in the rise of the North Shore club and became general manager of performance and pathways at Swimming New Zealand in 2008.

She resigned three years later in the wake of the contentious Ineson report into the state of New Zealand’s high performance swimming structure.

The report, produced by sports administrator Chris Ineson called the culture “dysfunctional and negative”.

The blunt-talking Cameron, always a forthright talker and thinker on the sport, responded by describing the report as “poorly written, poorly done rubbish”.

Cameron’s son, with first husband, renowned Australian coach Don Talbot, Scott Talbot-Cameron represented New Zealand at the 2000 and 2004 Olympics. She then married former director of sport at Sky TV Kevin Cameron.

Cameron once explained what swimming meant to her.

“You know, I love swimming. I love the water. I think you’re either a water person or you’re not.

“The feel, the freedom of moving through the water. I think that’s a thing that is innate.

“Some people have that, they really love water and I’m a Pisces.”