Holly Lincoln-Smith

Holly Jane Young (née Lincoln-Smith born 26 March 1988) is an Australian former water polo player. Her sister is skeleton competitor Emma Lincoln-Smith. They are the first set of Australian siblings where one competed at the Summer Olympics and the other at the Winter Olympics.

In 2006, she was made her first appearance on Australia's senior team, with her first major international tournament representing Australia being the 2009 FINA World League Super Finals. As a member of Australian national sides, she has earned gold medals at the 2007 FINA Junior World Championships and 2011 Canada Cup, and a silver medal at the 2010 FINA Women's Water Polo World Cup. She represented Australia at the 2012 Summer Olympics, winning a bronze medal and also at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Personal life

Lincoln-Smith was born on 26 March 1988 in Sydney. She has two sisters and is her parents's youngest child. As of 2010, she resided in Narrabeen, New South Wales. In 2005, her father had open-heart surgery in order to remove a tumour and her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. In 2010, her sister Emma Lincoln-Smith represented Australia at the 2010 Winter Olympics in skeleton. She is currently involved in a long-term relationship. During the event, she rescued fellow competitor Tom Fabian, who was in distress. She left the course to rescue him, and after helping, got the attention of the safety crew on a boat, resumed her swim and finished 27th in the field of 40 swimmers. She went on to attend Macquarie University where she is doing a course on Human Resource Management. , she was in her third year of the programme. In 2008, she earned a scholarship from Macquarie Sports to help her focus on water polo. As part of the scholarship, the Macquarie Group required her to spend a week in their offices where she received some "work experience as a trader in foreign exchange". and prefers to wear cap number two or four. and the Australian Institute of Sport.

In 2004, she represented New South Wales at the U17 national championships where the team came out on top, and she was the leading goal scorer and named the player of the tournament. In 2009, shortly after her eldest sister's death, she seriously injured her shoulder when she dislocated it while at the gym and required reconstruction surgery on it. She was a member of the team in 2009 and 2011. As a member of the team, she helped them win the first two games of the season 8–4 and 7–4. She took a break from the team following their 18 February 2012 game in order to attend the national team training camp. Her last game before the break was against the Balmain Tigers. She did not play in the National Water Polo League in 2010 because of an injury. that took home gold. She competed in a tournament in the United States for the senior side in 2006 because Melissa Rippon and Taniele Gofers were injured. In 2009, she was part of the Australian side that finished third at the FINA World League Super Finals in Kirishi, Russia. This was her first major tournament on the senior side. she was named by her team as the Australian Player of the Tournament. that took home a silver medal. At the 2011 Canada Cup, she scored a goal in the first period in the gold medal match against China that the Australian team ended up winning. She was part of the Stingers squad that competed in a five-game test against Great Britain at the AIS in late February 2012. This was the team's first matches against Great Britain's national team in six years. In the first game of the test series on 21 February 2012, Australia won 13 – 5, she scored one goal. She was part of the squad that won bronze at the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Retirement Lincoln-Smith retired from water polo after competing in the 2016 Summer Olympics. She said in 2017 "Physically, I would not have been able to continue playing. After two major shoulder surgeries, thumb surgery, back and hip issues, I had to walk away."

Post playing In 2017, she developed an app for planning weddings.

Awards In 2005, the New South Wales Institute of Sport awarded Lincoln-Smith the Ian Thorpe Grand Slam International outstanding achievement award, and she had an opportunity to meet Ian Thorpe.