Felicity's Story
Felicity Galvez finished fifth in the 200m butterfly at Athens 2004. At Beijing 2008, she combined with Angie Bainbridge, Melanie Schlanger and Lara Davenport to qualify Australia sixth for the final of the 4 x 200 freestyle relay. In the final, Stephanie Rice, Bronte Barratt, Kylie Palmer and Linda MacKenzie won Australia’s first gold medal in this event. The result was still seen as somewhat of a surprise, with the highly fancied Americans finishing third behind Australia and China. The wining time of 7:44.31 shattered the old world record, held by the United States, by almost six seconds. The first four teams swam inside the pre-race world record.
In the medley relay, Galvez, Tarnee White and Shayne Reese helped to qualify Australia to defend the Olympic title won in Athens. Emily Seebohm, Leisel Jones, Jessicah Schipper and Libby Trickett duly won the gold medal and set a new world record.
