Dawn Fraser

Episode 81

Today, we continue the conversation with a living legend.  Born in 1937 in Balmain, NSW, she brought pride to her country with her lightening fast world record times in the pool and yet somehow, wickipedia still qualifies her as a larikin (the Canadian in me shall have to ask what that even means!) 

In 1999, Dawn Fraser was voted “World's Greatest Living Female Water Sports Champion” by the International Olympic Committee for such feats as being one of only three swimmers in the world to have won the same Olympic individual event three times – just to give you context, Michael Phelps is one of those other two! She also held the 100m freestyle world record for more than 15yrs. 

All of this, and yet it’s some of her bigger controversies at the 1964 Tokyo Games that remain in Aussie history. She not only decided to march in the Opening Ceremonies against the governing body’s wishes but then was accused of stealing an Olympic flag from a flagpole outside Emperor Hirohito's palace and then later suspended for 10yrs by the Australian Swimming Union - only to retire under that suspension. Knowing that she was in a car crash weeks before these Games where her mother Rose was killed and her and her sister survived; has me wondering what the impact of those tragedies would have had on her. Somehow, she still managed to win a GOLD and SILVER medal at those same Games.  How does one woman handle all of that and still perform?

At a spry 83yrs old, she can be found these days spending her Isolation days with her daughter and Grandson on the Sunshine Coast.  A far cry from her stint in politics, she continues to mentor and contribute to upcoming athletes and swimmers alike; she always seems to be in the mix no matter the occasion.

Thanks Dawnie for taking time out of your busy isolation schedule to chat to our worldwide audience who are most likely in similar circumstance...

The Goods on Dawn:

Fraser won eight Olympic medals, including four gold medals, and six Commonwealth Games gold medals. She also held 39 records. The 100 metres freestyle record was hers for 15 years from 1 December 1956 to 8 January 1972.

She is the first of only three swimmers in Olympic history (Krisztina Egerszegi of Hungary and Michael Phelps of the United States being the two others) to have won individual gold medals for the same event at three successive Olympics (100 metres freestyle – 1956, 1960, 1964).

In October 1962, she became the first woman to swim 100 metres freestyle in less than one minute. It was not until 1972, eight years after Fraser retired, that her 100m record of 58.9 secs was broken.

Several weeks before the 1964 Olympics, Fraser was injured in a car crash that resulted in the death of her mother Rose. Her sister and a friend were also travelling in Fraser's car when it crashed, but they survived. This was a fresh tragedy for Fraser and her family following her older brother's death from leukemia in 1950, and her father died after a long battle against cancer in 1960.

Contact Dawn:

Website: www.olympic.org/dawn-fraser

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