The daughter of a fitter and turner who worked in the Wollongong steelworks for more than 35 years, Whitfield was taught to swim along with her sister and their cousins at the age four by her maternal uncle, who was active in the local Learn to Swim program.
 Along with her sister and cousins, she was a childhood member of the Shellharbour Swimming Club, and was mainly taken to local swimming competitions by her father and uncle.
 This became even more pronounced following the death of her mother from cancer.

Whitfield showed a preference for the breaststroke from an early age, and would do a breaststroke kick when participating in freestyle activities.
 She showed a wider interest in sport while at Shellharbour Primary School, playing softball, netball, athletics and even playing cricket against her male classmates.
 However, this ended as she approached the end of her primary school years, with swimming coming to the fore.
 At the age of nine, Whitfield competed in the Primary School State Championships at North Sydney Pool, coming second to Kathy Whitlam, who happened to be the daughter of future Prime Minister of Australia Gough Whitlam.
 It was at the age of ten that Whitfield witnessed Australia's Dawn Fraser win her third consecutive 100-metre freestyle Olympic gold medal at the 1964 Summer Olympics, becoming the first Olympian to win an individual event three times consecutively, that forged her resolve to become an Olympian.

At the age of 11, her uncle decided to send her to Sydney every weekend to receive training from Terry Gathercole, an Olympic medal-winning breaststroker who was regarded as Australia's foremost breaststroke coach.
 This involved long daytrips for her family to help her fulfill her dream, usually starting before daybreak.
 During school holidays, she boarded with Gathercole to train under him on a daily basis.
 In her first year under Gathercole, she finished third in the 100-metre breaststroke in her age group at the New South Wales Championships.
 Her improvement was rapid, and in 1968, she won the 100-metre and 200-metre breaststroke in the under-14 division at the State championships before placing second in her age group at the national titles in Hobart.
 This her progress to the open Australian Championships, which were the selection trials for the Olympics team.
 At the age of 14, she narrowly missed selection for the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, after finishing sixth and fourth in the 100-metre and 200-metre breaststroke respectively in the trials.

In 1969, Gathercole was appointed as a swimming coach in Midland, Texas, forcing Whitfield's father to raise funds for her to travel to Texas and board with his family to continue her training for six months, where she sharpened her racing skills with more frequent racing in the more competitive American scene.
 Her improvement saw her place sixth and third in the 100-metre and 200-metrebreaststroke respectively at the US Championships in Louisville, Kentucky.
 On her return to Australia in November 1969, Gathercole arranged for her to train under Don Talbot.
 Whitfield found Talbot to be a hard-pushing coach: "I both hated and loved him.
 Terry Gathercole and Don Talbot had two different approaches.
 With Don I had to do all the strokes, the same number of repetitions and the same as everyone else was doing.
I was exhausted."

Whitfield proceeded to win both breaststroke titles at the 1970 Australian Championships in times of 1 m 18.5 s and 2 m 48 s respectively.
 She then toured South Africa with the national team before repeating the victories at the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh in times of 1 m 17.4 s and 2 m 44.2 s respectively.
 She relegated England's Dorothy Harrison to silver in setting new Commonwealth records in both races.
She added a third gold medal in the 4×100-metre medley relay, combining with Lynne Watson, Alyson Mabb and Denise Langford in 4 m 30.66 s. Whitfield continued her winning run in 1971, taking out the Australian Championships in both breaststroke events, although her times were slower than in Edin
The daughter of a fitter and turner who worked in the Wollongong steelworks for more than 35 years, Whitfield was taught to swim along with her sister and their cousins at the age four by her maternal uncle, who was active in the local Learn to Swim program.  Along with her sister and cousins, she was a childhood member of the Shellharbour Swimming Club, and was mainly taken to local swimming competitions by her father and uncle.  This became even more pronounced following the death of her mother from cancer.
Whitfield showed a preference for the breaststroke from an early age, and would do a breaststroke kick when participating in freestyle activities.  She showed a wider interest in sport while at Shellharbour Primary School, playing softball, netball, athletics and even playing cricket against her male classmates.  However, this ended as she approached the end of her primary school years, with swimming coming to the fore.  At the age of nine, Whitfield competed in the Primary School State Championships at North Sydney Pool, coming second to Kathy Whitlam, who happened to be the daughter of future Prime Minister of Australia Gough Whitlam.  It was at the age of ten that Whitfield witnessed Australia's Dawn Fraser win her third consecutive 100-metre freestyle Olympic gold medal at the 1964 Summer Olympics, becoming the first Olympian to win an individual event three times consecutively, that forged her resolve to become an Olympian.
At the age of 11, her uncle decided to send her to Sydney every weekend to receive training from Terry Gathercole, an Olympic medal-winning breaststroker who was regarded as Australia's foremost breaststroke coach.  This involved long daytrips for her family to help her fulfill her dream, usually starting before daybreak.  During school holidays, she boarded with Gathercole to train under him on a daily basis.  In her first year under Gathercole, she finished third in the 100-metre breaststroke in her age group at the New South Wales Championships.  Her improvement was rapid, and in 1968, she won the 100-metre and 200-metre breaststroke in the under-14 division at the State championships before placing second in her age group at the national titles in Hobart.  This her progress to the open Australian Championships, which were the selection trials for the Olympics team.  At the age of 14, she narrowly missed selection for the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, after finishing sixth and fourth in the 100-metre and 200-metre breaststroke respectively in the trials.
In 1969, Gathercole was appointed as a swimming coach in Midland, Texas, forcing Whitfield's father to raise funds for her to travel to Texas and board with his family to continue her training for six months, where she sharpened her racing skills with more frequent racing in the more competitive American scene.  Her improvement saw her place sixth and third in the 100-metre and 200-metrebreaststroke respectively at the US Championships in Louisville, Kentucky.  On her return to Australia in November 1969, Gathercole arranged for her to train under Don Talbot.  Whitfield found Talbot to be a hard-pushing coach: "I both hated and loved him.  Terry Gathercole and Don Talbot had two different approaches.  With Don I had to do all the strokes, the same number of repetitions and the same as everyone else was doing. I was exhausted."
Whitfield proceeded to win both breaststroke titles at the 1970 Australian Championships in times of 1 m 18.5 s and 2 m 48 s respectively.  She then toured South Africa with the national team before repeating the victories at the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh in times of 1 m 17.4 s and 2 m 44.2 s respectively.  She relegated England's Dorothy Harrison to silver in setting new Commonwealth records in both races. She added a third gold medal in the 4×100-metre medley relay, combining with Lynne Watson, Alyson Mabb and Denise Langford in 4 m 30.66 s. Whitfield continued her winning run in 1971, taking out the Australian Championships in both breaststroke events, although her times were slower than in Edin
Beverley Whitfield