Swim icon, Ironman champ’s marriage reportedly over after 22 years
Australian swimming icon Samantha Riley has reportedly split from husband of 22 years Tim Fydler.
The 50-year-old and her former Ironman champion partner are living separately on the Gold Coast, ending the power couple’s celebrated fairy tale relationship, according to The Daily Mail.
Riley, the first Indigenous Australian to win an Olympic medal, was spotted in public without her wedding ring recently.
According to the report, Riley and Fydler remain amicable and are co-parenting their three sons, Isaac, 20, Lucas 18, and Jesse, 13.
People close to the pair say the break-up has been kept quiet for some time, according to the report.
Riley, Australia’s best female breaststroker of the 1990s and the world swimmer of the year in 1994, has an unfortunate track record of being unlucky in love.
She said ahead of their nuptials in 2001 that she had found her “soulmate” in Fydler after previous failed engagements to Rugby League bad boy Julian O’Neill and three-time Olympic gold medallist, Norwegian speedskater Johann Olav Koss.
Riley and Fydler tied the knot in front of a star-studded guest list on Queensland’s South Stradbroke Island — and were celebrated as a power couple of Australian sport.
“He is the love of my life, my soulmate, my best friend,” Riley told Women’s Day at the time.
“The man I’m so proud to spend the rest of my life with.”
Riley retired from swimming in 2001 after winning two world championships, three Olympic medals and five Commonwealth Games medals.
Fydler, the brother 4x100m freestyle relay gold medallist Chris Fydler, is reported to have become heavily invested in Gold Coast real estate and recently walked away with a multi-million dollar pay day.
It was reported recently the couple shared in a $900,000 renovation project at Rainbow Bay which sold for $6.5 million.
The pair also own successful fitness and swimming centres.
Her business acumen and established position as one of Australia’s greatest swimmers saw Riley appointed to the Gold Coast Suns board of directors.
Riley has shied away from the public spot light since her swimming retirement and has conducted only rare interviews when promoting local charity initiatives.
Earlier this year she came out in a public attack on Queensland’s swimming education system, describing the current mandated swimming structures as unsafe.
The swim school owner said in January it must be compulsory for children under the age of nine to complete 10 swimming lessons per year through the education system.
She told The Courier-Mail parents are being forced to explore swimming safety education outside of schools.
“I believe it must be a collaborative approach, relying only on schools to teach children just isn’t enough, they must do both. Swimming lessons are a long-term investment in your child’s aquatic safety and is something that should be considered all year round,” she said.
Riley, formerly a golden girl of Australian swimming, recently revealed she has just one major regret from her swimming career — the 1996 Olympics where she fell short of the gold medal in the 100m breastsroke despite being the red hot favourite in the event.
Her preparation for the event was thrown off the rails when handed headache medication by her coach — a tablet that contained a banned substance.
She said in 2017 she has nightmares about the episode.
“I was a big deal… for all the wrong reasons.”
“I do think, ‘What if?’” Riley admits. “What if that lead-up to 1996 was different? What if I didn’t get sick before the 2000 Olympics? [But] I try not to dwell. You can’t change the, ‘What if?’”