While today’s class of swimmers are breaking records at a clip never before seen, they are not the first swimming superstars. Before there was Phelps and Lochte, Cielo and Bernard, Coughlin and Hardy, there was a whole slew of swimming innovators that revolutionized the sport. Every week, The Swimmers Circle is going to take a look at one of these Legends of the Pool, and help remember the stars of the past. Click here to see all of our Legends of the Pool.
Last week’s Legend of the Pool, Johnny Weissmuller, was the first man to break the one-minute barrier in the 100m freestyle. Despite the fame he derived in his dual role as swim champion and movie star, his level of fame in the United States can’t hold a candle to that which Dawn Fraser saw in swimming-mad Australia during the 1950’s and 60’s.
As the first woman to break the same sub-minute barrier in 1962, Fraser was hailed as a National hero in Australia. Imagine the media firestorm that accompanied Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris chasing Babe Ruth’s 60 homerun record a year earlier. That’s roughly what Fraser saw in Australia.
Among her career accomplishments:
- 41 World Records
- 8 Olympic medals (4 gold, 4 silver)
- 29 Australian National Titles
- 6 Commonwealth Games gold medals
If those numbers alone don’t blow you away, count the awards she’s racked up. In 1964, she was named the Australian of the Year. In 1967, she was honored by the Queen by being made a Member of the Order of the British Empire, and an officer of the Order of Australia, an honor which is limited to no more than 100 people each year. In 1996, the Atlanta Olympic Organizing Committee honored Fraser as one of the 7 greatest Olympic athletes of all time.
In 1999, the Australian Sports Hall of Fame named her the Australian Athlete of the Century. Later that year, at the World Sports Awards in Vienna, Fraser was named the WORLD Athlete of the Century. She has been named as one of Australia’s National Living Treasures, and (perhaps not surprisingly in a nation surrounded by water) was voted as the person who best symbolizes Australia in 1998.
The most iconic picture of Fraser, her sweet smile and rebellious attitude won over the hearts of Australians
But it wasn’t just her swimming that makes her so adored in Australia. It’s the way she swam, and her attitude towards violating the status quo. In Australian folk-tradition, it is a trait known as larrikinism. State-side, we might call it a wild-streak.
Case-in-point: Fraser’s career was cut short over a flap with the Australia Swimming Union. At the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, Fraser was admonished by the ASU for marching in the opening ceremonies against their wishes. If that weren’t enough, she wore an older suit that was not provided by the team sponsor, because she thought it was more comfortable. (That decision obviously worked out well for her, as she won gold in the 100m freestyle despite wearing an older model suit).
And to cap off her Olympic escapades, Fraser was arrested for stealing an Olympic flag from outside of Emperor Hirohito’s Palace. She ended up being released without charge, but the incident sparked rumors and legends about her swimming the moat outside of the palace to retrieve the flag.
As a result of her behavior in Japan, the ASU suspended her for an unbelievable 10 years. In 1964, Fraser was already 27 years old, and this suspension effectively ended her swimming career. The Union repealed their decision shortly before the ’68 games, but at 31 years old, this didn’t allow her enough time to properly prepare.
This rebellious attitude angered her national association, yet it endeared her to her nation.
This untimely end of her career left her short of the opportunity to become the first swimmer to ever win the same event at 4 consecutive Olympics. As it stood, Fraser is one of only two swimmers to ever win the same event at 3 Olympics. (If you are curious, the other is Hungarian Krisztina Egerszegi, who won the 200m back at the ’88, ’92, and ’96 Olympics.)
Like many swimmers prior to the modern era, Fraser never intended to be a great swim champion. She actually grew up with a passion for horses, but as the youngest of 8 children in a working-class family, that hobby was simply to expensive for her parents to support. Luckily, swimming at the time was cheap. With the huge abundance of pools in Australia, and the very limited equipment needed at the time–this is the era before $700 suits and 47 mandatory pieces of training equipment—swimming was a perfect fit.
Also similarly to many other of history’s best swimmers, Fraser began swimming as treatment for a medical condition. While Johnny Weissmuller began as treatment for polio, and Michael Phelps started to abate his ADD, Fraser had a condition which is much more familiar to many swimmers, but still equally frightening when you are a child getting used to not having access to oxygen: asthma.
Perhaps it was this familiarity that endeared her to the public so much. She was how they were: she wore the more comfortable suit, sponsorship be darned. She marched in the opening ceremonies, because she appreciated the spectacle and experience of the Olympics as much as the competition. She had a wild streak in her, and played pranks which were ultimately harmless. And she did it all with the everyman’s condition, asthma, that prevents participation in most other organized sports.
While she is no longer an active participant in swimming, she has not retired behind her trophy cases. Besides remaining an active member in the Olympic and Paralympic movement, Fraser has served the public which has adored her so much.
From 1988-1991, she was a member of the Parliament of New South Wales. She has also taken up and patroned the causes of the Cerebral Palsy Sports Association and the Wheelchair Sports Association of Victoria.
Fraser’s role as the world’s first great female swimming star, and perhaps the world’s greatest female swimming star ever, was a function of her ability to take freestyle to a level never before seen, and her ability to do it with a spunk and fire that fought the system. And this is what makes her a Legend of the Pool.