Karol Albury

Auckland teenager Karol Albury swam the 100m freestyle at the Christchurch Commonwealth Games, finishing fourth in her heat in 1min 03.18s, which was not fast enough to progress to the final.

That was the end of the Games for Albury, the 1974 New Zealand 100m freestyle titleholder.

She showed promise as a hockey player and a swimmer throughout her time at secondary school – first at McAuley Girls High and then, in 1975, at Papatoetoe High. But she didn’t remain involved in top-level swimming in New Zealand.

Albury went on to carve out a very successful career overseas working for major world companies.

She worked for a decade as a support co-ordinator and then template designer for international law firm Herbert Smith. In 2003 she moved to the global law firm Norton Rose as an IT expert, and in 2014 she moved again, to litigation specialists Stewarts as the service desk manager for the IT department.