Our First Golden Girls

Australia loves its athletes, especially our women's Olympic swimming team. As is now tradition, they're quickly labelled “ours”. Our Shane. Our Libby. Our Arriane. But where did it all begin? Meet Mina Wylie and Sarah “Fanny” Durack, the Australian women who dived into the history books more than 110 years ago.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
We have a tradition in this fine country. If an
Australian woman swims at the Olympics, she becomes ours our Shane,
our Libby, our arian. But where did it all begin?
To answer that question, you'll need to meet Mina Wiley
and Sarah Fanny Jurak, the Australian women who dived into

(00:25):
the history books more than one hundred and ten years ago. Hey,
welcome to the pool room, where we celebrate the winners,
losers and the weird stuff between. I'm Tony Armstrong. You

(01:05):
might be surprised to know women have actually been competing
in the Olympics almost from the start. In Paris in
nineteen hundred they sailed, golfed and shot arrows at targets,
although Australian women didn't feature because we didn't send any.
But in Stockholm nineteen twelve, the game's changed. Women's swimming
was now on the program and two whole races were

(01:27):
timetabled and in what would become a classic Ausi tradition,
we desperately wanted to win, but as it turned out,
getting there at all was going to be a fight.
Fanny Durak and Mina Wiley had grown up together They

(01:48):
lived by the sea in Cujie in Sydney's East. Mina's
dad was a champion swimmer himself, and he helpfully built
her a pool where the girls could train. Wiley's baths.
They took their sport very seriously. By nineteen twelve, Fanny
was breaking world records and Mina wasn't far behind. They
belonged at the Olympics. Both were members of the new

(02:14):
South Wales Amateur Swimming Association, a good start, except the
association didn't believe women should compete in the presence of men. Actually,
women were still banned from men's only public pools at
the time. Even their dads and brothers weren't allowed to
watch them compete, so getting to the world stage must
have felt like a big mountain to climb. A public

(02:36):
outcry ensued. Eventually, the Amateur Swimming Union bowed to the
pressure and the rules were reversed. The girls were told
they could join the Australian team as long as someone
else paid their way. Like many aspiring Olympians, the swimmers
found themselves fundraising their way to the Games. Their many

(02:56):
fans let an outpouring of support, allowing Fanny and Mina
set sail for Sweden. They called it the Sunshine Olympics.
Every day of Stockholm nineteen twelve delivered ideal conditions for
a speedy dart across the pool. The women's one hundred
meter freestyle event ran from Monday to Friday, with twenty

(03:18):
seven swimmers from eight nations competing. Fanny and Mina repped Australasia,
a combined Australia and New Zealand team. This was before
we could field a whole squad. The weather was good,
the cozies were modest, and the Aussie women well, they
were fast. Mina blitzed her heat, finishing more than a

(03:40):
second faster than her British runner up. Then Fanny took
to the blocks as the favorite, and with good reason.
When she hit the wall, she'd wiped half a second
off the women's world record. Our girls went into the
final with all of Australia behind them. I mean there
was no broadcast then, so we'd have to find out

(04:01):
about it in the papers later, but we probably felt
it half a world away. Our golden girls, ready to win.
The race began. Mina was fast. Those years in her
dad's pool had paid off, as she tore down her lane,
but Fanny was faster. The official timer stopped at one

(04:21):
minute and twenty two point two seconds, more than three
seconds faster than Mina, who took silver. Great Britains Jenny
Fletcher was a couple more seconds behind in third. Our
Fanni our Mina the first of many Australian women to
win Olympic swimming medals. Fanny Durak and Mina Wiley returned

(04:45):
to Australia as champions, and they carried on that way.
Between nineteen twelve and nineteen eighteen. Fanny broke twelve world records,
including taking three and a half seconds off our own
personal best that she set for the one hundred meters
in Stockholm. Wiley went on to compete in local and
national championships, winning one hundred and fifteen titles, including every freestyle,

(05:06):
backstroke and breaststroke event. In nineteen eleven, nineteen twenty two
and nineteen twenty four, both were inducted into the International
Swimming Hall of Fame. Fanny has an avenue named after
her at Sydney's Olympic Park, and on what would have
been her one hundred and thirtieth birthday, Mina was honored
on the front page of google Today's Golden Girls. Our

(05:31):
girls are following in some mighty footsteps, well strokes more accurately.
Fanny and Mina showed the nation what was possible in
the pool and while these baths they remain the oldest
communal sea baths in the country and a place where
sporting dreams are born. You've been listening to an iHeart

(06:01):
production the pool room with me, Tony Armstrong. Catch you
next time.