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Dawn Fraser MBE
1964 Award
Triple Gold Olympic Gold Medallist
Born in Balmain, Sydney, 'our Dawn' was spotted by coach Harry Gallagher, who told her 'I used to listen to you screeching around and I used to shudder. You were like a wild racehorse out of the hills...with stacks of power and completely uncontrollable'. Winning her first national title in 1955 and two gold medals at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, Fraser went on to become the only swimmer to win gold medals at three successive Olympic Games. Fraser won the 100 metre freestyle in 1956, 1960, and in 1964 when, at 27 years of age, she was almost twice the age of the silver medallist. She was the first woman to break the one minute barrier for 100 metre freestyle, and she held this record until 1972.
She held 27 individual world records and 12 relay world records, and eight Olympic (four gold, four silver) and seven Commonwealth (six gold, one silver) medals. Her hatred of rules and regulations dogged her career and ultimately finished it. Officials of the Amateur Swimming Union of Australia, whom she had defied once too often, banned her from competition for ten years after a prank during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
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