Jane Asher BEM (born 20 March 1931) is a British Masters swimmer. During her career, Asher won over twenty gold medals at the FINA Masters World Championships and broke a hundred Masters records. She was inducted into the

International Swimming Hall of Fame The International Swimming Hall of Fame and Museum (ISHOF) is a history museum and hall of fame, located at One Hall of Fame Drive, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States, operated by private interests and serving as the central point for the s ...

in 2006 and awarded the British Empire Medal at the

2018 Birthday Honours The 2018 Queen's Birthday Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as p ...

Early life and education

In 1931, Asher was born in

Nkana Nkana is a section of the city of Kitwe, Copperbelt Province, Zambia which started off in the early part of the 20th century as a railway station to support the growing complex of copper mining operations. It was named after Chief Nkana, the loc ...

, Northern Rhodesia. Her mother was a ballerina while her father was a soldier in World War I. After moving to

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

as a child with her family, she attended

Rhodes University Rhodes University is a public research university located in Makhanda (Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is one of four universities in the province. Established in 1904, Rhodes University is the province's oldest ...

and studied social sciences. After graduating from Rhodes, Asher went to

Manchester University , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

to study

personnel management Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any oth ...

for her post-graduate in 1953.

Career

Asher began swimming as a child and participated in her first swim meet at the age of seventeen. After swimming for Manchester University, she became a

piece work Piece work (or piecework) is any type of employment in which a worker is paid a fixed piece rate for each unit produced or action performed, regardless of time. Context When paying a worker, employers can use various methods and combinations of ...

supervisor in

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

and stopped swimming when she became a parent. Asher resumed her swimming career during the 1950s as a children's swim instructor. In Norwich, she taught swimming for the Norwich Penguins during the 1970s and gave swim lessons to high school students in the 1980s. In 1986, Asher broke her first world record in

masters swimming Masters swimming is a special class of competitive swimming for swimmers 25 years and older. Premasters is normally included as well, from 18 years old (Canada, United States and Australia) or 20 years old (Europe). In Canada ten thousand swimm ...

. As a Masters swimmer, Asher broke 75 Masters records before she was inducted into the

in 2006. Her Masters record total had grown to 100 when she turned 80 years old in 2011. Apart from world records, Asher has won over 20 gold medals at the FINA Masters World Championships.

Awards and honors

Asher was named one of the top World Masters swimmers of the year by ''

Swimming World ''Swimming World'' is a US-based monthly swimming magazine that was first published in a magazine format as ''Junior Swimmer'' in January 1960. It concurrently runs online websites ''Swimming World Magazine'' and ''Swimming World News'', (known ...

'' in 2004. Asher subsequently appeared on the magazine's list for 2006, 2011, and 2016. For honours, Asher was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 2006. She was awarded a British Empire Medal at the

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Asher, Jane 1931 births Living people British female swimmers Recipients of the British Empire Medal Rhodes University alumni Alumni of the University of Manchester

Early life and education

Career

Awards and honors

See also

References