Lisa Forrest Profile

Most Australians, if they recognise the name, will remember Lisa Forrest as a gold medal winner in swimming in the 1982 Commonwealth Games, but she was also captain of the women's swimming team that went to the 1980 Moscow Olympics. That was the time of Russia's invasion of Afghanistan and the subsequent attempt by the Fraser Coalition Government to force the Australian Olympic Federation to boycott the games. To their credit the AOF did not cave into the pressure, but the split in public opinion in Australia made the whole experience very stressful for all concerned. Now Lisa Forrest, previously the writer of a number of YA novels, has written her account of the attempted boycott of the games, Boycott: The Story Behind Australia's Controversial Involvement in the 1980 Moscow Olympics, and she is interviewed in "The Courier-Mail" by Kathleen Noonan.