Graeme Brewer

Who is Graeme Brewer?

Graeme Brewer was an Australian freestyle swimmer of the late 1970s and early 1980s, who won a bronze medal in the 200 m freestyle at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. In all he won 13 Australian titles.

Coming from New South Wales, Brewer first gained attention in the surf lifesaving world when he won consecutive Australian junior ironman championships in 1976 and 1977, competing for the Tamarama club from Sydney's eastern suburbs. Switching to competition in the pool, Brewer gained prominence at the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, Canada, winning a silver medal in the 200 m freestyle and one of each colour in the three relays.

In Moscow, Brewer claimed a bronze medal behind the Soviet Union pair of Sergey Kopliakov and Andrei Krylov. He came eighth in the 100m freestyle and seventh in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay along with Mark Tonelli, Mark Kerry and Neil Brooks. He narrowly missed the final of the 400 m freestyle.

Brewer was best known for being a member of the so-called Mean Machine competing at the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, when he combined with Neil Brooks, Greg Fasala and Michael Delany to claim gold in the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay, gaining their nickname after collectively shaving their heads for the race. He also won a gold in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay. He competed at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay, coming fourth.