Giaan Rooney

Giaan Rooney

Rooney in November 2012
Personal information
Full name Giaan Leigh Rooney
National team  Australia
Born (1983-11-15) 15 November 1983
Brisbane, Queensland
Height 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight 63 kg (139 lb)
Sport
Sport Swimming
Strokes Freestyle
Club Melbourne Vicentre,
Australian Institute of Sport

Giaan Leigh Rooney, OAM[4] (born 15 November 1982)[5] is an Australian former competition swimmer and television personality. As a member of the Australian team in women's 4×100-metre medley relay, she won an Olympic gold medal and broke a world record at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Rooney is currently an Australian television presenter.

Personal life

Rooney was born in Brisbane, attended Miami State Primary School and All Saints Anglican School on the Gold Coast.

Giaan is married to Sam Levett. In September 2013, Rooney announced that she was pregnant with her first child, due in March 2014. On 17 March 2014, Rooney gave birth to a healthy baby boy, Zander.

Swimming career

Rooney's career began at age 11 at the Miami club in Queensland, where she was coached by Denis Cotterell. Training partners there included Grant Hackett and Daniel Kowalski. In 2002 Rooney moved to Melbourne, coached by Ian Pope at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre. Training partners included Matt Welsh, Michael Klim (who was also her boyfriend for two years) and Brett Hawke.

Rooney made her international swimming debut for Australia at the 1998 Commonwealth Games, where she won a gold medal in the 100 m backstroke as a 15-year-old. Rooney was also part of Australia's gold-medal winning 4×100-metre medley relay team at the 1998 Games.

At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney Rooney won two silver medals as a part of the 4×200-metre freestyle relay (with Kirsten Thomson, Susie O'Neill and Petria Thomas) and 4×100-metre medley relay (swum in morning preliminary session).

In 2001 Rooney claimed the world champion title in the 200 m freestyle, winning at the 2001 Fukuoka World Swimming Championships in Japan. This event was also widely remembered for the disqualification of the Australian women's team after they jumped in the water to celebrate apparent victory in the 4×200-metre freestyle relay: the team of Elka Graham, Petria Thomas and Linda Mackenzie joined anchor swimmer Rooney in the water to celebrate their win, but as it was before all other competitors had finished the event, they were disqualified. Furthermore, the team found out about their disqualification while they were giving a post race interview for television.[6]

Rooney competed in the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England, winning silver in the 4×200-metre freestyle relay (with Elka Graham, Rebecca Creedy and Petria Thomas) and bronze in the 100-metre backstroke.

In 2004 Rooney won a gold medal in world record time at the 2004 Summer Olympics in the women's 4×100-metre Medley Relay. Rooney swam a personal best and new Australian record time of 1:01.18 to help Australia to the gold – the maiden victory by Australia in this event in Olympic history.

After the withdrawal of Grant Hackett from the 2006 Commonwealth Games due to injury, Rooney was appointed as the captain of the national swimming team. She won a silver medal behind teammate Sophie Edington in the 100-metre backstroke, and qualified fastest for the 50-metre backstroke. However, she was upset by Edington by 0.01 of a second, again winning a silver medal. There is, however, conjecture about that official result with video suggesting Rooney touched first but did not activate the timing pad immediately.[7] Rooney retired from competitive swimming after this meet.

Television career

Rooney has performed on television with appearances on Torvill and Dean's Dancing on Ice competition and holiday season weather presenter on Channel Nine's Today, filling in for Steven Jacobs, despite having no experience or qualification in meteorology.

Giaan also appeared as a presenter on the Nine Network's television health series What's Good For You (2007) and Getaway (2007–8). She also attended Bond University as a sporting scholar.[8]

In 2010, Rooney was appointed as host of the Victorian edition of 'Postcards', a local travel series broadcast on the Nine Network replacing Suzie Wilks.

In 2011, Channel Nine appointed Giaan as occasional host of their Sunday sports programme Nine's Wide World of Sports.

In December 2012, Rooney joined the Seven Network as a fill weather presenter on Seven News Melbourne while David Brown was on holidays.

In February 2013, Giaan was appointed weather presenter on Seven News Melbourne replacing David Brown who is now network meteorologist. In January 2014, Rooney went on maternity leave, and was replaced by Jo Silvagni. Giaan returned from maternity leave in June 2014 to present weather on weekends.

In February 2015, Rooney resigned as weekend weather presenter on Seven News Melbourne. She will remain part of the Seven Network's news and sport division.

See also

References

  1. "2004 Olympic Games swimming results". CNN. Retrieved 22 July 2007.
  2. "ESPN Sydney Swimming". Retrieved 14 March 2009.
  3. "Montreal 2005 Results". Archived from the original on 28 January 2007. Retrieved 9 June 2007.
  4. "Rooney, Giaan Leigh". It's An Honour. Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Retrieved 26 January 2009.
  5. "Giaan Rooney: Bouncing back". abc.net.au. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 2004. Retrieved 7 September 2014.
  6. 2001 | Australia | Disqualification | Womens 4x200m Free | Graham McKenzie Thomas Rooney | 2 of 2
  7. "Officials check claims Rooney robbed of gold in timing blunder". The Sydney Morning Herald. 2 April 2006.
  8. Bond University (2008). Games Fever!. Retrieved 6 April 2008.


Media offices
Preceded by
Jennifer Keyte
Seven News Melbourne
Weekend Weather Presenter

June 2014 – February 2015
Succeeded by
David Brown
Preceded by
David Brown
Seven News Melbourne
Weather Presenter

February 2013 – January 2014
Succeeded by
Jo Silvagni
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