Chris Fydler, Australian swimmer
Christopher John Fydler (born 8 November 1972) is a former competitive swimmer from Australia, who competed in three consecutive Summer Olympics for his native country, starting in 1992. Fydler represented Australia at an international level from 1989 to 2000. During his career he amassed over 20 national championships including five consecutive national 100-metre freestyle championships. His finest hour came at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, when he was a member of the men's 4×100-metre freestyle relay team that defeated the Americans and won the gold medal in the prestigious event, alongside Michael Klim, Ian Thorpe and Ashley Callus. It was the first time in Olympic history that the US team had been beaten in that event.
Fydler competed in the Gladiator Individual Sports Athletes Challenge in 1995.
Since retiring from swimming in early 2001, Fydler has continued to be active in the swimming and Olympic families. He was a board member of Swimming Australia Ltd from 2006 to 2010, was a member of the FINA Disciplinary Panel in 2009-2017 and currently a member of its Ethics Panel, and is currently the President of Swimming NSW. He was also the Deputy Chef de Mission for the Australian Olympic Team competing in 2012 London Olympics and again at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Since 2017, Chris has also a been a board member of the NSW Institute of Sport.
For his significant contribution to Swimming in Australia over the last 30 years, Chris was awarded Life Membership of Swimming Australia in 2020.
Chris graduated from Bond University in 1997 with a BComm and Llb (Hons). He was admitted as a solicitor in New South Wales in January 1998. He practiced as a lawyer in Sydney from 1998 to 2003 before taking equity in a Sydney-based System Integration business Oriel Technologies. After Oriel Technologies was sold in 2016 to the Big Air Group (ASX:BGL), Chris had a short break before being appointed as CEO and then Managing Director of Tambla Ltd (formerly ComOps Ltd), a publicly listed Workforce Management software company.