Olympic games for kids ...DAWN FRASER

Free Web Hosting Provider - Web Hosting - E-commerce - High Speed Internet - Free Web Page

The Olympic Games
CHAMPIONS

"DAWN FRASER"
LEGENDARY AUSTRALIAN ATHLETE
and known as AUSTRALIA'S GREATEST OLYMPIAN

Dawn Lorraine Fraser was born in 1937 in Balmaine , Sydney Australia ,
One of 8 children Dawn suffered from Asthma as a child and
was encouraged to swim by her favourite brother Don who died at the age of just 13 years .
One of the last things Don said to his sister before he died was this
"You have a gift ...... keep training for me."
Little did he know just how much his sister would ultimately achieve in her swimming career
or what she would come to mean to Australia .

DAWN'S SWIMMING CAREER

A coach named Harry Gallagher saw Dawn and offered to train her for nothing.
So Dawn began her fabulous swimming career. Harry, her trainer moved to Adelaide.
Dawn followed soon after. Dawn became part of a group nicknamed the waterbabes.
Dawn spent a great deal of time training with the men which served to make her more competitive.
Harry perfected Dawn's swimming style and in 1956 she qualified for the Melbourne Olympics.
She won a gold medal in the 100 metres freestyle.

In 1960 the Rome Olympics began. Dawn was now 23 and the oldest of the waterbabes.
She was very independent and often found herself in trouble with the officials.
As part of the Olympic team she would have to go to bed at 9:30 each night,
yet after training for four years Dawn felt that going to bed at 10:00 was all right.
"I wasn't a 14 or 15 year old any more. I was an intelligent adult." Dawn explained.
Dawn won a gold medal in the Olympics again. ( It was 100 metres freestyle. )

2 years later Dawn became the first women to swim 100 metres under one minute.
Just before the 1964 Tokyo Olympics Dawn's mother died and Dawn almost gave up swimming.
Dawn continued her swimming career and secured a record third Olympic gold medal
at the Tokyo games breaking the world record in a time of 58.9 seconds.
During the Tokyo Olympic games Dawn and a group of athletes played a prank
stealing a flag from the Imperial Palace .
An example ws made and a 10 year ban was imposed on our Dawn
this was later reduced to 4 years after it was discovered she had not initiated the prank.

At the age of 27 and known to her team mates as "Granny"
the ban unfortunately spelled the end of Dawn's personal Golden Olympic career
Although she has always remained close to the sport.
Dawn was named Australian of the year in 1964

Australia's winning trio after they triumphed in the
1956 Melbourne Olympic Games
100 metres freestyle event
taking out the first three places.
Left to right :
GOLD Dawn Fraser, SILVER Lorraine Crapp,
and BRONZE Faith Leech.

Dawn fraser at the opening ceremony
of the Sydney 2000 games with
Cathy Freeman and Juan Antonio Samaranch

Dawn won four gold medals in three successive Olympic Games between 1956 and 1964,
including three straight 100-metre freestyle titles.
To become the only swimmer, male or female, to triumph in the same event three times
Dawn is one of only three female swimmers to win a record eight Olympic medals.
In 1981, she was awarded the prestigious Olympic Order and was popularly awarded the M.B.E.

During her nine years of global swimming dominance, she set an amazing 28 world records

She has always endeared herself to the public with her willingness to speak out on public issues and,
in recent years, she has been outspoken over corruption within the International Olympic Committee.

ALL THINGS AUSTRALIAN	AUSTRALIAN JOEY SCOUTS	JENNIFER'S JIBBERISH	YOWIE'S BUSH TELEGRAPH
	SEND EMAIL TO YOWIE HERE	SKINS FOR ICQ	GAMES AND CRAFT

please send your comments or suggestions
Page last updated Sept 2000
Sign My Guestbook View My Guestbook

One site back Next 10 pages One site forward

SCOUTING SPIDER WEBRING

Click HERE to vote for this page as a Starting Point Hot Site.