David Lowe
The GB men's 4 × 100 metre medley relay team - Duncan Goodhew, David Lowe, Gary Abraham and Martin Smith
David Lowe was another successful ex-Rhodesian swimmer who won an Olympic medal - for another country. He was born in Bulawayo on the 28th of February 1960, coached by Sydney Gibbons, himself a South African butterfly champion in 1962, before moving to South Africa in 1976. At the 1977 South African Championships held at the Newlands Pool in Cape Town, David won three events - 100 and 200m butterfly, as well as the 200 IM. In the fly events, he broke the national records set by fellow Rhodesia John Keyter in 1969.
Dave took up a scholarship at the Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Texas in 1978, and transferred to the University of Houston in 1979. By 1980 he moved to the UK, where he soon became a regular on the British team. He won a bronze medal in the 4x100 medley relay at the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games.
His swimming focus then changed from butterfly to freestyle, and he became the first British man to break the 50-second barrier in the 100m Freestyle SC when he swam a time of 49.86 seconds at the 1983 National Short Course Championships in Gloucester. At his second Olympic Games in the 1984 Los Angeles Games, David finished third in the B final of the 100m freestyle.
In 1987 David returned to Cape Town for the Spur Robben Island Relay Race, held between Cape Town and Robben Island. With fellow Houston swimmer Kevin Lee, Kevin Murphy (the man who has done the most Channel crossings, and Annemie Landmeters - who was the first person to swim across False Bay. Their team finished in 4th place.
After retiring from swimming Dave has been working as a swimming coach in England.
David Lowe in the 1977 Rhodesian national swimming team, in the middle row 6th from the right.
Rhodesian swimmers and divers in Dallas Texas in 1979. l to r. Guy Goosen, Dave Parrington, Dave Lowe, Debbie Hill, Kris Hammond (who dived for Rhodesia at the 1976 South African Championships in Durban, when he was an exchange student from the US attending Oriel).
Dave Lowe with coach Frank Parrington, at a clinic in Rhodesia.