Having been advised as a child to begin swimming to combat
asthma, the Brisbane schoolgirl broke into the Australian team for the 1991 World Championships in Perth, Western Australia, winning a silver medal in the medley relay. The following year, Riley won a bronze medal in the 100-metre breaststroke at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, as well as competing in the 200-metre event. In 1994, Riley won both breaststroke events at the
1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, British Columbia, and repeated the feat at the
1994 World Championships in Rome, Italy, setting a world record of 1 minute, 07.69 seconds in the 100-metre event. This prompted
Swimming World magazine to name her as the
Female World Swimmer of the Year. Riley continued to sweep all before her in 1995, but arrived for the
1996 Summer Olympics under the cloud of a doping controversy. Her coach, Scott Volkers, had given her a pill for headaches which contained the banned substance
dextropropoxyphene. Riley tested positive at the world short course championships in Rio de Janeiro, and was only exonerated after her coach Volkers admitted to giving her a headache tablet which contained the banned substance. Riley told a news conference the drug was contained in headache medication she took by accident. Under the pressure of the controversy, Riley performed well outside her personal best times. She collected a bronze in the 100m breaststroke. She also collected a silver medal in the 4x100-metre relay with
Nicole Stevenson,
Susie O'Neill and
Sarah Ryan. Riley never stood on the podium again as an individual at the world level, but maintained her position in the Australian squad. Many anticipated her to return to her peak at the
2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, but a kidney infection disrupted her training. She retired shortly after being Australia's most successful female breaststroke swimmer in the 1990s. ==Personal life==