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Pioneering Australia coach dies at 95

Sydney - Legendary Australian swimming coach Forbes Carlile, who later competed at the Olympics in the modern pentathlon, died Tuesday aged 95, officials said.

Carlile became the nation's first post-war Olympics swim coach in 1948, and again coached the Australian squad at the 1956 games, before becoming the team's scientific adviser for the 1960 Olympics.

He is the only Australian to have gone to the Olympics first as a coach and then as an athlete, when in 1952 he competed in the modern pentathlon at Helsinki, the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) said.

"The passing of Forbes Carlile is incredibly sad and our thoughts are with his wife Ursula," Australia's Olympic chef de mission Kitty Chiller said in a statement.

"He was a true legend in Australian Olympic history as both an athlete and a coach."

During his career, Carlile worked with swimmers who captured 12 Olympic medals - including five individual gold - and 31 individual world records, the AOC said.

Carlile studied human physiology at the University of Sydney and pioneered work on elite athlete training methods, writing several books on competitive swimming.

"He will be sadly missed by the whole swimming community," the Australian Swimming Coaches and Teachers Association said in a statement.

The veteran coach, who was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in the United States in 1977, last month became Australia's oldest surviving Olympian with the passing of fencer Helen Joy Hordon on July 28.

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