Beijing Olympians Bronte Barratt And Patrick Murphy Welcome Son William To Australia’s Lovers Lanes

BronteBarrattPatrick MurphyBabyWilliamOswald

AND BABY WILLIAM MAKES THREE: Proud parents Bronte Barratt and Patrick Murphy with baby William Oswald. Photo Courtesy Bronte Barratt.

Olympic golden girl Bronte Barratt and her 2008 Australian Beijing teammate and bronze medallist Patrick Murphy have welcomed the arrival of their first-born son William Oswald, to swimming’s lovers lanes.

Triple Olympian Barratt gave birth to the couple’s healthy baby boy in Brisbane this week with William weighing in at 3.6kg and measuring 54cm.

SMILE TIME: Golden girl Bronte Barratt all smiles and a beanie for baby William. Photo Courtesy: Bronte Barratt.

“Mini Murphy…we love you!” wrote Bronte in her Instagram posts as she and Pat welcomed baby number one into the world to brighten up this COVID-19 lockdown.

Messages of love and support have flowed in for the popular swimming couple, with friends and family and a host of fellow Olympians (and potential babysitters) quick to congratulate the pair and little William, including Libby Trickett, Brooke Hanson, Sally Hunter, Grant Irvine, Fran Adcock, Jessicah Schipper, Koti Ngawati, Georgia Bohl, Brittany Elmslie, James Roberts, David McKeon, Emma McKeon, Travis Mahoney, Madi Wilson, Leah Neale, Annabelle Williams, Nicole Livingstone and Sophie Edington joined by Australian-based Brits Suki Brownsden and James Hickman, who already offered William his first pair of Speedos.

GREEN AND GOLD GLORY: Bronte Barratt with fellow relay gold medallist and duel IM winner Stephanie Rice in Beijing 2008. Photo Courtesy: Bronte Barratt.

Bronte Barratt won gold in Australia’s 4x200m freestyle relay in Beijing with Stephanie Rice, Linda Mackenzie and Kylie Palmer in 2008; adding individual bronze in the 200m freestyle; as well as silver and bronze in the 4x200m in London and Rio respectively in a glittering career.

Murphy won a brace of bronze in Australia’s 4×100 and 4x200m freestyle relays in Beijing as the Aussies won medals in every relay for the first time.

Murphy and Barratt have joined their fellow 2008 Olympians Melanie Schlanger and Chris Wright who have two children Madison and Thomas and Alice Mills who married British Olympic backstroker, proud Scotsman Gregor Tait, into the family way after Alice gave birth to their sons Vance in 2015 and Miller in 2018.

All three couples live in South East Queensland – the Murphys and the Taits in Brisbane and the Wrights on the Gold Coast.

Lovers in lanes are certainly not uncommon in Australian swim teams with the likes of 1976 Montreal Olympic pairing Graham Windeatt marrying Nira Stove; Chris Fydler (1992-96-00) to Rosemary Brown (1980), Mark Stockwell (1984) to US triple Olympic gold medallist Tracey Caulkins (1984) and Glen Housman (1992 and 1996) to Jodie Clatworthy (1988) as did no fewer than three couples from Australia’s 1982 Commonwealth Games team – Greg Fasala and Rickie Binning; Suzie Baumer and Tim Ford and Ron McKeon and Suzie Woodhouse (parents of Emma and David McKeon)..to name but a few!

Definitely something in the water Down Under.

Name*

Email*

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use

Name*

Email*

2 Comments

Oldest

Newest Most Voted

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

Sara Stacy

3 years ago

Congratulations Bronte! Elizabeth Taylor

Anonymous

3 years ago

Absolutely wonderful news! ?
Congratulations.

-1