Lauren Boyle

Born in Auckland, New Zealand in 1987, Lauren Boyle began swimming with a club at 8 and at 11 became interested in competitive swimming. She made her international breakthrough at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, where she was part of the 800m freestyle medley, and took home a bronze medal. While setting a number of school and Pac-10 records as a student at the University of California, Berkeley, Boyle participated in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Although she didn't medal, she did make it to the finals in the 400m freestyle and just missed a medal, finishing fourth in the 800m freestyle and breaking the New Zealand record at that distance. She won the silver medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in the 800m freestyle, and in 2012, again finished fourth, this time in the 400m freestyle at the Olympic Games. In 2014, Boyle swam a world record time of 15:22.68 in the 1500m short course competition. At the 2015 World Championships Boyle swam personal bests in both the 800m and 1500m freestyle competitions, finishing second to US phenom Katie Ledecky in both races. In 2016, Boyle was set to represent New Zealand at the Olympic Games scheduled to be held in Rio de Janiero, Brazil.