Jaynie Parkhouse

Jaynie Margaret Hudgell (née Parkhouse, born 17 April 1956) is a retired female freestyle swimmer from New Zealand, who competed for her native country at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany. She claimed the gold medal at the 1974 British Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, New Zealand, in the women's 800 m freestyle and bronze medal in the 400 m freestyle.^[1]

Jaynie Hudgell

Personal information
Birth name	Jaynie Margaret Parkhouse
Nationality	New Zealand
Born	(1956-04-17) 17 April 1956 (age 69) Cambridge, New Zealand
Height	1.69 m (5 ft 7 in)
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Strokes	Freestyle
Club	Wharenui Swimming Club
Coach	Pic Parkhouse
Medal record Women's Swimming Commonwealth Games 1974 Christchurch 800 m freestyle 1974 Christchurch 400 m freestyle

Born in Cambridge,^[2] Hudgell grew up in Christchurch where she attended Villa Maria College^[1] and raced for the Wharenui Swimming Club under her father Vincent Temple (Pic) Parkhouse.^[3]

Jaynie Parkhouse Drive, within Queen Elizabeth II Park, where she won her gold and bronze medals, was named after her. Parkhouse Reserve and Parkhouse Street in Rangiora are also named after her.^[2]

In 2021 she became president of Swimming New Zealand.^[1]

Swimming Career

At 16, Hudgell competed at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, in the 400 metre freestyle finishing 5th in heat 4 in a time of 4:40.24, and in the 800 metre freestyle where she finished 3rd in heat 5 in a time of 9:34.65.

At the 1974 Commonwealth Games in front of a home crowd, Hudgell won the 800 metre freestyle ahead of Australian trio Rosemary Milgate, Sally Lockyer and world record holder Jenny Turrall in a time of 8:58.49.^[4] Hudgell would go on to claim the bronze medal in the 400 metre freestyle in a time of 4:23.09, only one second behind Turrall. She would wrap up her performance with 5th place finishes in the 100 metre freestyle, 200 metre freestyle, 4x100 metre freestyle relay and 4x100 metre mixed relay.^[5]

Hudgell retired from swimming that year.^[6]