How about this for a swimming epitaph to be proud of? It’s from the 1965 International Swimming Hall of Fame entry for Dawn Fraser:
“Her good times were not all in the water. Her rule-breaking has been almost as dramatic as her record-breaking.”
Of course, the idea of rule-breaking by Aussie swimmers won’t be new to anyone who follows the news. In 2008, Nick D’Arcy was booted out of the Olympic squad after assaulting another swimmer, Simon Cowley (who suffered a broken jaw, eye socket, cheekbone and nose in the attack). More recently, stories of sexual harassment and drug-fuelled initiation rites swirled around the underperforming 2012 Olympic squad, after which the head coach resigned and several swimmers were fined.
To be mentioned alongside such a crew, Dawn Fraser must have been a wild child indeed, right? Well, no. Not unless you count marching in the Olympic opening ceremony, wearing the wrong swimming costume, or trying (and failing) to steal a souvenir flag as seriously bad behaviour.
Fraser was a brilliant swimmer, probably the most dominant in the world during the 1950s and 60s. She was the first ever to win the same event at three consecutive Olympics. She was the first female to swim 100m freestyle in less than a minute, and later set an astounding world record of 58.9secs – a time that remained the world’s best for 14 years. But her career was marred by clashes with Australia’s swimming authorities, whose response to Fraser’s spirited personality was to try to crush it.
Fraser was born in the Sydney suburb of Balmain in 1937. Today it’s a gentrified inner-harbour district, where the renovated homes command prices their original inhabitants wouldn’t have believed. In 1937, though, Balmain was solidly working class, an area of foundries, boilermakers and shipbuilding yards. It hadn’t been long since sooty-faced pit workers walked home through the streets: a nearby coalmine had only closed in 1931. This was where the Australian Labour party formed in 1891, part of its charter “to eliminate exploitation”. Not necessarily, then, a place imbued with respect for the authorities.
Legend says that Dawn was talent-spotted bombing up and down a sea pool by Harry Gallagher. Gallagher was manager of the nearby Drummoyne baths, and one of Australia’s best coaches. He persuaded Dawn to join his training group (actually, he followed her home from the pool and knocked on the door – not something a prospective coach would be advised to do today). Gallagher was so excited by this new talent that he even waived his usual fee of 12 guineas.
Soon after, Fraser had her first brush with authority. She was disqualified from an amateur race on the grounds that she had been associated with a professional club. (In those days, professionalism was a bit like ringworm: you could catch it by contact.) Fraser was forced to stay away from racing until it was established that she’d never been paid to swim.
Once she was allowed back in the water, Dawn’s talent began to shine through, and by the time the Olympic trials for the 1956 Games were done, she was world record holder for the 100m, 200m and 220 yards freestyle. At the Games, she led a clean sweep for Australia in the 100m freestyle: Fraser first, Lorraine Crapp second, Faith Leech third. At the next Olympics, in Rome in 1960, Fraser again finished a clear winner. It was a record-equalling performance: only two other swimmers – previously featured Heroes Duke Kahanamoku and Johnny Weissmuller – had ever won the same event at successive Olympics.
You might think the Australian Amateur Swimming Association (AASA) would have cheered this achievement to the rafters – but you’d be wrong. Fraser had racked up several minor misdemeanours at the Rome Games, including not wearing the team tracksuit to receive her medal and allegedly taking part in an unauthorised event in Switzerland. The AASA decided to ban her from competition for two years. (Today, a two-year ban is typical for a first-time drugs offence. The penalty for not wearing the team tracksuit is unknown to Heroes of swimming.)
Fraser was – conveniently for the AASA – back racing in time for the 1962 Commonwealth Games in Perth. She won four gold medals, and her attention switched to the 1964 Tokyo Games. In the lead-up to the Games, though, tragedy struck: Fraser was badly injured in a car wreck that took her mother’s life, and spent nine miserable weeks with her neck and back in a steel brace. Even so, she remained part of Australia’s squad for the Tokyo Olympics.
Tokyo was to prove the final round in the slugging match between Dawn and the AASA. She won 100m freestyle gold, the first ever consecutive-Olympics hat-trick – but that became a side-story. After she’d finished competing, Fraser and a couple of others launched a raid on the avenue leading to the Imperial Palace, hunting for souvenir flags. It’s far from a one-off occurrence among contest swimmers to try and bag an unofficial memento – but Dawn and her compatriots were unfortunate enough to be nabbed in the act. They were arrested, then released when the police realised whom they’d caught, and finally presented with a flag as a gift the next day. For the AASA, it was the final straw. Already in trouble for marching in the opening ceremony against team orders, then wearing an unofficial swimsuit in her races, Fraser was banned from swimming for 10 years.
If that seems a draconian sanction, it’s because it was. It’s hard to imagine any other country handing down such a ban for, essentially, high spirits. But those were the days of the cultural cringe, when many leading Australians feared the critical judgment of the rest of the world. Dawn herself also thought there was an element of class in her treatment. A girl from Balmain was expected to toe the line and show gratitude for her opportunities, not embarrass her benefactors.
Fraser got on with her life. She retired from swimming, married, had a daughter, became a publican then a politician, a member of the New South Wales parliament. Her ban had eventually been reduced to four years, leaving her theoretically eligible for the 1972 Games, but by then she’d been too long out of the training pool. Even for one of the 20th century’s greatest swimmers, there could be no way back.
Today, Dawn Fraser works with a range of charities and – as you might expect of someone who so strongly embodies the larrikin spirit – is one of the most popular sporting figures in Australia.
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