Lincoln Hurring

Who was Lincoln Hurring?

Lincoln Norman William Hurring was a swimmer from New Zealand. He won two silver medals at the 1954 British Empire Games — one in the men's 110 yards backstroke and another in the men's 330 yards medley relay. He represented his native country at two consecutive Summer Olympics, 1952 and 1956. He became a swimming coach, and gave TV commentaries on several Olympics.

Hurring was born in Dunedin in 1931. In 1957 he married fellow swimmer Jean Stewart, who won the bronze medal in the women's 100 metres backstroke in 1952. Their son, Gary Hurring, won a Commonwealth Games gold medal and a world championship silver.

In the 1950s, Hurring was a student at the University of Iowa on a swimming scholarship. While there he won several NCAA, Big Ten Conference and United States national open backstroke titles. In 2001 he was inducted into the University of Iowa Hall of Fame.

From 1954 Hurring and Jean Stewart coached swimming at Three Kings School in Auckland, and in 1975 they moved to the Takapuna Municipal Pool.

In 1993, aged 61, he collapsed and died on Milford Beach, Auckland from a heart attack.