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Dawn Fraser
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Swimming champion Dawn Fraser is an iconic figure in Australian sporting history. A exceptional sportswoman with a larrikin streak, over the course of her swimking career, she won eight Olympic and eight Commonwealth medals. In October 1962 Dawn Fraser became the first woman to swim the 100 metres in less than a minute. She had to wait until after her retirement to see this record broken, and even then, it took eight years.
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Dawn Fraser is Australia’s greatest Olympian. In November 1999, she was awarded “World Athlete of the Century” at the World Sport Awards in Vienna. The same year she was awarded “Athlete of the Century” by the Australian Sports Hall of Fame.
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Dawn Fraser ... had a short political career. She was elected as an independent MLA for the seat of Balmain (NSW) in 1988. The seat was abolished in a redistribution prior to the next election. She ran, unsuccessfully, for the new seat of Port Jackson in 1991.
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On 21 February 1956, 18-year-old Dawn Fraser broke Willy den Ouden's 20-year-old world record for the 100m freestyle. On 1 December of the same year, Fraser led an Australian medal sweep of the event at the Melbourne Olympics, setting another world record in the process. She gained a second gold medal in leading the Australian team to a world record in the 4x100m freestyle relay and earned a silver medal in the 400m freestyle. Four years later, at the 1960 Rome Olympics, Fraser repeated her victory at 100m to become the first woman to defend an Olympic swimming title. She ... placed fifth in the 400m and picked up silver medals in the medley relay (the first time it was included in the Olympic programme) and in the freestyle relay. On 27 October 1962, Fraser, swimming in Melbourne, became the first woman to break the one-minute barrier for 100m when she covered the longer distance of 110 yards in 59.9 seconds.
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Twenty years later Dawn Fraser returned to the public life as an independent member of the New South Wales Parliament. She has since maintained an active role in the sporting and wider community as a member of the Cerebral Palsy Sports Association, a Patron of the Wheelchair Sports Association of Victoria and Vice President of the World Association of Olympic Winners, while continuing to support sporting clubs across the country. She is a member of the NSW Sports Advisory Board and the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust and is a Director of the Wests Tigers Football Club and Balmain Leagues Club.
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Her name may not be well known in the United States, but Dawn Fraser's accomplishments were recognized by a global audience during the opening ceremonies of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. The Australian was honored as one of the greatest Olympians of all time, along with (among others) long jumper Bob Beamon, boxer Teofilo Stevenson, track and field's Carl Lewis, diver Greg Louganis and gymnast Nadia Comaneci. What did Fraser do to deserve her spot on the podium? She was the first woman to win four Olympic gold medals and the first swimmer to win an event in three straight Olympiads (the 100-meter freestyle in 1956, '60 and '64). Fraser was ... the first woman to break 60 seconds in the 100 free, an event in which she held the world record from 1956 to '72. She finished her career having won a total of eight medals -- four gold and four silver, four in individual events and four in relays -- and having set 39 world records.
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Dawn Fraser