Coached in
Brisbane by
Mabel Springfield, the chaperone for female athletes on the Australian
1928 Summer Olympics team, Lyons nearly missed the London games. Although she was one of 25 swimmers chosen for the team, due to post-war financial difficulties, she was forced to raise the money herself to pay her fare to the Olympics. This was achieved and she finished half a second behind the world record-holder
Petronella van Vliet of the Netherlands. This was two months after changing from the traditional breaststroke technique to the
butterfly stroke, which was at that stage permitted due to a loophole in the rules. Lyons returned to Australia and commenced studying a Bachelor of Arts degree at the
University of Queensland, whilst continuing to train for the
1950 British Empire Games in Auckland. Lyons was beaten into second place by Scottish swimmer
Helen Gordon in the 220-yard breaststroke, and won gold in the 3×110-yard medley relay with
Judy-Joy Davies and
Marjorie McQuade (as only three different strokes were in existence at the time). At the
1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Lyons finished last in her semi-final with a time more than six seconds outside her best, set in the London final four years earlier. She retired after the games. ==See also==