25 Aug 2009

Justin Norris was an Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) swimmer from 1999 to 2004 and a member of the Australian swimming team from 1999 to 2005. Justin represented Australia at both the Sydney 2000 and the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, winning a bronze medal in the 200-metre butterfly at the Sydney Games.

During his sporting career, Justin also won three gold medals at the Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games — in the 200-metre butterfly, and the 200-metre and 400-metre individual medley — as well as a world championship bronze medal (2001) and world short course championship silver medal (2002).

After leaving the AIS, Justin returned to the area he grew up in, the Hunter Region in New South Wales, where he continues to live with his wife Brooke, two daughters and a son. In December 2005, Brooke and Jusin opened the Justin Norris Swim Academy, Thornton’s first purpose-built learn-to-swim centre, which was named the 2008 Business of the Year at the Hunter Region Business Excellence Awards.

Justin has been an ambassador for Swim Australia, the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children, the Royal Life Saving Society Australia and Kidsafe Australia. In May this year he was one of 12 athletes — including rugby league great Andrew Johns and former AIS Softball athlete Natalie Ward — inducted into the Hunter Region Sporting Hall of Fame.