| Dawn Fraser |
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}} Dawn Lorraine Fraser AO , MBE , (born September 4 1937 ) is an Australia n champion Swimmer . She was born in Balmain , a suburb of Sydney , into a working class family. She was spotted at an early age of 12 by Sydney coach Harry Gallagher swimming at the local sea baths. Known for her Politically Incorrect behaviour or Larrikin character as much as her athletic ability, Fraser won eight Olympic medals, including five golds, and six Commonwealth Games gold medals.Fraser also held 39 records. The 100 meters freestyle record lasted for 16 years. She is the first of only two swimmers in Olympic history ( Krisztina Egerszegi being the other) to win gold for the same event at three successive Olympics (100 m: 1956, 1960, 1964). In October 1962 she became the first woman to swim the 100 metres in less than a minute. It was eight years after she retired before her record was broken. In 1965 Fraser retired from swimming, after the Australian Swimming Union placed her under a ten-year ban. Things had come to a head when, at the Tokyo Olympics , she marched in the opening ceremony against their wishes, wore an old swimsuit (which angered sponsors) because it was more comfortable, and, it was alleged, she climbed a flagpole in Emperor Hirohito ’s palace, taking the Olympic flag (later proved false). The ban was lifted four years later. |
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