Earlier this year, SwimmingStats posted on Instagram a review of the 10 most decorated female swimmers in Olympic history, organized by event. This means relay medals will not be included, only individual medals will be prioritized in order of gold, silver and bronze. Scroll down the list of legends led by the only active swimmer among the 10 who can go the distance. katie ledeckyyou'll find Australia's Living Legend tied for 8th place dawn fraser.
Fraser was born in September 1937 and competed in his first Olympics in 1956 at the age of 19. It wasn't until 1972 that the other members of the elite group of women on this top 10 list competed in the Olympics. She was truly a woman ahead of her time.
Frazier competed in the Olympics three times. Melbourne in 1956, Rome in 1960, Tokyo in 1964. Winning gold in the 100m freestyle in Tokyo meant Fraser became the first swimmer to win the same event in three consecutive Olympics. After her victory in Melbourne, her world record was broken an astonishing nine times, and she remained untouched by anyone else for over 15 years.
In 1962, long before tumble turns and high-speed suits, she achieved her long-held ambition to become the first woman to break the one-minute barrier in the 100-meter freestyle.
Her career was brutally cut short by Swimming Australia after the Tokyo Olympics. Swimming Australia somewhat arbitrarily suspended her for 10 years, later reinforcing it to four years, for her act with two of her teammates in presenting her national flag in front of the Imperial Palace. reduced. .
She was initially arrested, but the police discovered the identity of the thief and decided to release her. The next day she famously received flowers along with a box containing her national flag and a letter from the emperor forgiving her indiscretion. Dawn was given permission to fly the Australian team's flag at the closing ceremony that night, but not her home federation's flag.
As I reflect on her legacy, two questions arise in my mind. If this great swimmer had competed in her fourth Olympics, how would she have fared? Moreover, given the event opportunities open to today's swimmers, she would have fared far less in reality. What kind of medals did you get?
It was a pleasure to speak with Dawn about her thoughts on these questions. I told her that she must have been “upset” that her opportunity to go to Mexico had been blocked by the authorities. Her response was, “I was really pissed off, to say the least!” In today's sporting environment, a good sports lawyer could have easily resolved this issue, but despite significant public outcry and political support, Swimming Australia relented.
What we sensed during our conversation is that Dawn has remained true to her character throughout her life. She candidly and joyfully looks back on her childhood growing up as the youngest of her three brothers and her four sisters in a working class family.
She talked about playing cricket and football with her brothers. “I was a bit of a tomboy and was always up to mischief. It was in my personality from the beginning. It was my older brother Donnie who encouraged me to swim because it was good for my asthma. As I grew up, I was able to relieve stress by swimming for a long time.”
But at the age of 12, she said she was told by swimming officials that she would never swim for Australia because of her working-class background. Dawn said she feels that this was understandably the starting point for her highly rebellious attitude towards swimming officials and administrators.
Throughout her Olympic career, there were only two freestyle events open to women: the 100-meter freestyle and the 400-meter freestyle. It was at the 1968 Mexico Olympics that the 200 meter distance was introduced. As for the 50 freestyle, it was a long run until the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
“I never liked the 400 freestyle, but there really wasn't much choice. There were only two freestyle events at the Olympics, so my coach, Harry Gallagher, told me I had to swim it. I said no,” Dawn laughed.
Although it was a difficult sport, she reached the finals at all three Olympics and won the silver medal in 1956 behind her teammate and world record holder. Lorraine Clapp, 5th place in 1960, and bronze medal in 1964, just 0.3 behind.I can still hear the coach's voice harry gallagher“was the boss”, her guiding light, he kept her on the straight and narrow, well, most of the time anyway!
Coach Gallagher passed away in 2021 at the age of 96, and they remained very close until his death.
So the question I posed to her was, if the 200 and 50 freestyle had been raced in the Olympics in her day, how would she have performed?
“I loved the 200 freestyle. It was a challenge to develop a race strategy with my coach, but it was short enough to come back strong on the last lap,” she said.
We talked about the life of an Australian freestyler. Molly O'Callaghan I'm back as an Olympic champion Arialne Titmus It was in this event at the World Championship Trials held in Melbourne last year that led to the world record in Fukuoka. “That's what I mean: great swim timing in the last 50 seconds of her,” Dawn replied.
Looking at her history in this event, Dawn set her first world record in 1956, but her compatriot Clapp broke the record twice that Olympic year.
Two years later, Dawn regained the world record, breaking it twice in 1958 and again in 1960. Her record lasted until 1966, and in the next two years she broke the record of six American swimmers, making her the American teen sensation at its peak. Debbie Meyeradded the 200 to the world record over the 400 and 800 distances before Mexico City.
That's what the 50 dash was called at the time. Dawn was known for her immense strength since her teens. She led at the turn in the three-time Olympic gold medal-winning 100 freestyle swim, so from her perspective, she always controlled the pace on the first lap and controlled her own when attempting the second lap. He demonstrated his strength.
We asked the legendary Australian Olympic distance coach, who is in his 80s. john rogers (JR) How was Dawn doing in the 50 degree freestyle? John had seen her race many times at the height of her career and his answer was very candid. “She would have smashed it, no one would have gotten close to her because she was so strong.”
“Back then there were no tumble turns and you had to touch the water with both hands to stay on the surface, so for a powerful swimmer like Dawn, one lap would have been perfect,” he added.
As you can imagine, Dawn is not going to offer any chance of winning a medal in this hypothetical world, to say the least. So, from this writer's theoretical point of view, I would take Fraser out of the 400 freestyle in all Olympic events, focus on the 50-100-200 freestyle triple for the first three Olympics, and then Her meet will be back to the 50-100 freestyle. His last Olympics at age 31 were in Mexico.
If he can win medals in all three distances in three Olympics and two more in his fourth Olympics, he will have a total of 11 individual medals. As a comparison, katie ledecky He has seven individual medals. He has won six gold medals and one silver medal in three Olympics.
I think Fraser was the favorite to win gold in the 50 freestyle at all four Olympic Games.
In the 100-meter freestyle, she had already won three gold medals. Times were noticeably slower in most swimming events due to Mexico City's high altitude. Frazier's world record of 58.90 seconds and Olympic record of 59.50 seconds remain, while the times recorded by the three U.S. medalists: Hen 1:00.0, Pedersen 1:00.3 and Gustafsson 1:00.3. I just couldn't get it under 1 minute. Surely Fraser had a great chance of joining the ranks of the medals again?
Moving on to the 200m freestyle, it would have been a close battle for the gold medal in Melbourne. Frazier broke Clapp's world record for winning the 100 freestyle event. However, Clapp was also the 200m and 400m world record holder, and actually beat Fraser in the 400m freestyle final by almost eight seconds. In Rome and Tokyo, Dawn was the bicentenary world record holder and would have been the favorite for gold.
I would like to make one final observation to reflect on the mental strength of Dawn Fraser throughout her career.
After her father's death in December 1961, Dawn and her mother became close. After their success at the Australian Championships in February 1964, the pair were looking forward to Tokyo. It would have been her mother's first trip abroad.
Immediately after the trial, Dawn was involved in an accident as a car driver, resulting in the death of her mother. Fraser also suffered a severe injury that chipped his vertebrae and required a neck brace to be fitted for two months, leaving the Olympics less than eight months away.
I asked her if she thought it would have been easier to cope with grief and injury at this time and other times in her career if she had had access to the level of medical and psychological support staff available to today's elite athletes. I did. “No, I had a coach (Harry Gallagher) so I didn't need anyone else,” she quickly replied.
Despite many bumps in the road with his swimming talent, Fraser was named Australian of the Year in 1964. In 1999, she was named the 'Female Athlete of the Century' by the Sport Australia Hall of Fame and in 2014 she was named World Athlete of the Year. World Sports Award. That same year, the IOC named her the greatest living women's water sports champion of all time.
Swimming enthusiasts are advised to read her autobiography. Dawn: Life from hell. First published in 2001, it is readily available on the online second-hand market.
