14 Jul 2009

Linley Frame joined the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in 1989 on a swimming scholarship offered to her while she was still in high school. Two years later, Linley won a gold medal in the 100-metre breaststroke and two silver medals, in the 200-metre breaststroke and 4 x 100-metre medley relay, at the 1991 FINA World Swimming Championships.

In the same year, Linley won a gold medal in the 100-metre breaststroke and a silver medal in the 4 x 100-metre medley relay at the 1991 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships. She went on to be named AIS Athlete of the Year, Australian Young Achiever of the Year, Caltex Sport Star of the Year and was runner up for The Age Athlete of the Year award.

In 1992, Linley represented Australia at the Barcelona Olympic Games, wining two silver medals. She also won a bronze medal at the 1995 FINA World Short Course Swimming Championships.

One year later, in 1996, health issues forced Linley to retire from swimming and she joined the Seven Network as a specialist commentator. Linley worked for the Seven Network for several years, covering three Olympic Games and the 1998 FINA World Swimming Championships. She also lived in the United States and Russia for some time, with her former husband, Chris Anstey, who plays in the US and the European basketball leagues.

These days, Linley devotes much of her time to community and charity work. In 2001, she helped found Red Dust Role Models, an organisation that seeks to improve the health and wellbeing of disadvantaged youth living in remote communities using sport, art and music to convey healthy lifestyle messages and deliver educational programs.

As a Red Dust role model, Linley teaches swimming and water survival skills and participates in literacy and health promotion classes. Linley also serves as a board member, helping to recruit other role models. Since 2001, the organisation has engaged a number of other former-AIS athletes, including Kyle Vander-Kuyp (athletics), Allison Tranquilli and Nik Mirich (basketball), Sharon Finnan (netball), Caitlin Thwaites (netball and volleyball), Cheryl Salisbury and Thea Slatyer (football), Glenn Singleton (flatwater canoe), Kate Strickland (softball) and Melanie Jones (cricket).

Linley also works as an ambassador for The Fred Hollows Foundation, as a public speaker giving talks to school students about issues such as drugs in sport and self-esteem, and as a promoter of The World’s Greatest Pram Stroll, a program that encourages new mothers to exercise. She currently lives in Melbourne with her children, Isobel and Ethan.