An Olympic Great, Could Dawn Fraser Be Considered The Greatest Female Swimmer of All-Time?

Earlier this year, SwimmingStats posted a review on Instagram of the 10 most decorated female swimmers in Olympic history across individual events. That means no relay medals included, just individual medals prioritized with gold, ahead of silver, then bronze. As you scroll down the list of legends headed by the only current swimmer of the 10, distance great Katie Ledecky, you find in equal eighth place Australian living legend Dawn Fraser.

Fraser was born in September 1937 and competed in her first Olympics as a 19-year-old in 1956. It would be 1972 before any of the other members of the elite group of women on this top 10 list raced at the Olympics – making Dawn a woman truly ahead of her time.

Fraser competed in three Olympics; Melbourne ’56, Rome ’60 and Tokyo ’64. In winning the gold medal in the 100 freestyle in Tokyo, it meant Fraser became the first swimmer to win the same event at three successive Olympics. After her win in Melbourne, her world record remained untouched by anyone else for more than 15 years as she lowered her mark an astonishing nine times.

In 1962 she achieved a long-held ambition to be the first woman to break the one-minute barrier in the 100 freestyle, well before tumble turns and fast suits.

Her career was cruelly cut short by the Australian Swimming Union after Tokyo when they somewhat arbitrarily issued her a 10-year ban, later reduced to four years, for her part with two teammates in souveniring a flag from the front of the Japanese Emperor’s Imperial Palace.

Although she was initially arrested, the police decided to let her go when they discovered the identity of the thief. The next day she famously received flowers with a box containing a flag and a letter from the Emperor forgiving her for the indiscretion. Dawn carried the flag for the Australian team at the closing ceremony that night with his forgiveness, but not that of her home Federation.

Looking back at her legacy raised two questions in my mind. How might this great swimmer have performed had she competed in a fourth Olympic Games? Moreover, if we consider the event opportunities open to swimmers today, what sort of medal tally might she realistically have brought home?

I was privileged to speak with Dawn about her thoughts on these questions. I advanced to her that she must have been ‘pissed off’ at being blocked by officialdom from the opportunity to go on to Mexico. Her reply was, “That’s putting it mildly, I was bloody pissed off!” In today’s sporting environment, a good sports lawyer would have sorted this matter out in no time, but despite enormous public outcry and political support, the Australian Swimming Union would not relent.

What I sensed during our conversation was Dawn has been true to her character all her life.  She is open and joyous reflecting on her childhood as the youngest sibling of three brothers and four sisters in a working-class family.

She spoke of playing cricket and football with her older brothers. “I was a bit of a tomboy and was always getting into mischief; it was in my character from the start. It was my brother Donny that started encouraging me to swim as it was good for my asthma, and as I got older a good long swim allowed me to let off steam.”

However, she recounts at the age of 12 a swimming official told her she would never swim for Australia on account of her working-class background. Dawn feels, with good reason, it was the starting point for a very rebellious attitude towards swimming officials and administrators.

Throughout her Olympic career, there were only two freestyle events available to women, the 100 and the 400 freestyle. It was not until the 1968 Mexico Olympics that the 200 distance was introduced. And as for the 50 freestyle, it was a long stretch until Seoul in 1988.

“I never liked the 400 freestyle but I really didn’t have much choice. There were only two freestyle events at the Olympics and my coach Harry Gallagher said I had to swim it,” Dawn chuckled.

For an event she didn’t like, she made the final in all three Olympics, with a silver medal in ’56 behind teammate and world record-holder Lorraine Crapp, fifth in ’60 and just 0.3 off bronze in ’64. Even today her voice still resonates that her coach Harry Gallagher, “was the boss”, her guiding light, he kept her on the straight and narrow, well most of the time anyway!

Coach Gallagher died in 2021 at the age of 96 and they remained very close until his passing.

So my question posed to her was how she might have performed had the 200 and 50 freestyle been available to race at the Olympic Games in her era.

“I loved the 200 freestyle; the challenge of planning a strategy for your race with your coach, and it was short enough to come home strong in that last lap,” she said.

We spoke about the way Australian freestyler Mollie O’Callaghan came home over the top of Olympic Champion Ariarne Titmus in this event at the World Championships trials last year in Melbourne, which led to her world record performance in Fukuoka. “That’s what I mean, her timing of that last 50, amazing swim,” Dawn replied.

Looking at her history in this event, Dawn posted her first world record in 1956, although her compatriot Crapp lowered the record twice in that Olympic year.

Two years later, Dawn regained the world record, breaking it twice in 1958 and finally again in 1960. The record stood until 1966, when six individual American swimmers lowered the mark over the next two years, culminating in American teen sensation Debbie Meyer, who added the 200 to the world record, to the 400 and 800 distances prior to Mexico City.

As for the 50 dash, as it was called back in those days. Dawn was known for her immense power even as a teenager. She led at the turn in her three Olympic gold medal swims in the 100 freestyle, so from her perspective she was always in control of the pace in the first lap, and called on her strength when challenged in the second.

I asked fellow octogenarian and legendary Australian Olympic distance coach John Rodgers (JR) how Dawn would have gone in the 50 freestyle. John had seen her race many times at the height of her career and was very straightforward in his reply. “She would have smashed it mate, she was so strong, and no one would have got near her.”

There were no tumble turns back then, you touched with two hands and had to stay on the surface, so the one lap would have been perfect for a powerful swimmer like Dawn,” he added.

As one might expect, Dawn modestly would not be drawn to offer a potential medal tally in this hypothetical world. So from this writer’s theoretical perspective then, I would have pulled Fraser from the 400 freestyle in all her Olympic events, focussing on the 50-100-200 freestyle treble at her first three Olympics, then dropping back to the 50-100 freestyle at her final Olympics in Mexico as a 31-year-old.

Capturing a medal in all three distances over three Olympics and two more in her fourth Olympics would have resulted in a total of eleven individual medals. As a comparison, Katie Ledecky has seven individual medals; six gold medals, and one silver medal from three Olympics.

I believe Fraser would have been the favorite for the gold in the 50 freestyle at all four Olympics.

In the 100 freestyle, she already had three gold medals in the bag. Due to the impact of the high altitude in Mexico City, times were notably slower across most of the swimming events. Fraser’s world record of 58.90 and Olympic Record 59.50 remained intact, with the times posted by the three medallists from the USA: Henne 1:00.0, Pedersen 1:00.3, and Gustavson 1:00.3 just failing to break the minute. Surely, Fraser would have had a big chance to be among the medals again?

Finally to the 200 freestyle and it would have been a close battle for gold in Melbourne. Fraser broke Crapp’s world record in winning the 100 freestyle. However, Crapp was also the world record-holder in the 200 and 400, having in reality beaten Fraser by almost eight seconds in the 400 freestyle final. In Rome and Tokyo, Dawn was the reigning world record holder in 200 and would have been the favorite for gold.

Just one final observation to reflect upon Dawn Fraser’s mental toughness in her career.

After her father’s death in December of 1961, Dawn and her mother grew close. Following a successful Australian Championships in February 1964, the two looked forward to Tokyo; it would have been her mother’s first overseas trip.

Shortly after the trials, Dawn was the driver of a car that was involved in an accident that killed her mother. It also left Fraser with chipped vertebrae requiring two months in a neck brace, less than eight months out from the Olympics.

I asked her if she thought it would have been easier to cope with the sadness and injury at this time or any other time in her career, if she had access to the level of medical and psychological support staff available for current-day elite athletes. “No, I had my coach (Harry Gallagher), I didn’t need anyone else,” she replied quickly.

Despite her many run-ins with swimming powers-that-be, FRASER was named Australian of the Year in 1964. In 1999, she was named Female Athlete of the Century by the Sport Australia Hall of Fame and awarded World Athlete of the Century at the World Sports Awards. In the same year, the IOC declared her the Greatest Living Female Water Sports Champion.

I would commend swimming aficionados to read her autobiography: Dawn: One Hell of a Life. First published in 2001 and readily available online on the second-hand market.

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Oceanian
8 months ago

I think Dawn would easily have won the 50/200 events if contested in 56-60-64.

One person (was it Don Talbot? Murray Rose? Can’t remember) also said if she had trained harder she could also have won three consecutive 400 frees but obviously she didn’t really like the event.

She was at Mexico in 1968 and someone challenged her to swim a 100 free to see if she was still in shape. Apparently – without any proper warm-up – she dove in and swam a solo time trial clocked in faster time than Henne won the Mexico gold medal with (meaning Dawn’s time was sub-60).

I seem to recall too that Dawn swam as a master’s competitor for a season or… Read more »

Last edited 8 months ago by Oceanian
Stephen J Thomas
Reply to  Oceanian
8 months ago

Interesting about the time trial, she didn’t mention it, but would not surprise!

Willy
8 months ago

Dear writer when you wrote this, you should’ve added that same “if” when talking about Ledecky. In my mind she would’ve won the 1500 in London,Rio and Tokyo as she did. That’s my 2 cents. The same sentiments can be said about Janet Evans, though if she had the opportunity she wouldn’t have been anywhere near Ledecky and Fraser.

Joshua Liendo-Edwards-Smith
Reply to  Willy
8 months ago

London maybe. Her PB prior to London was 16:24 and winning time at 2011 worlds was 15:49. Possible she would have won London but certainly nowhere near a guaranteed assumption.

Ledecky very likely wins the 1500 in Rio. However, very unlikely she wins the 200 in that case. Sjostrom swam a 1:54.08 in that final. Ledecky swam a 1:53.73, her only performance under Sjostrom’s time, and did not swim a 1500 that year. Ledecky’s PB in a year when she also swam a 1500 is 1:54.40. Extremely unlikely Ledecky wins both 200 and 1500, so if you want to add the 1500 for her you have to remove the 200 gold.

Willy
Reply to  Joshua Liendo-Edwards-Smith
8 months ago

Anything could’ve happened we are dealing with “IFs” here. The same can be said about Dawn Fraser. She

Fraser Thorpe
8 months ago

Yes. And I’m clearly not biased in any way.

Ledecky is undisputed GOAT. Dawn leads the rest, with Egerszegi next imo.

Janet and Mary T have the best swims in history but longevity hurts them.

If (when!!) Sjostrom wins the 50 free in Paris she joins Dawn and Egerszegi.

Summer has range and versatility to dethrone Katie.

Gould and Caulkins also up there.

Mark69
Reply to  Fraser Thorpe
8 months ago

Good summary but a few points. Katinka should also get a mention. Janet set her first world records in 1987 and was still a world champion in 1994 and Mary T set her first WR in 1979 and was world champion in 1986 and Olympic medallist in 1988, so I don’t think they have longevity issues. But Katie has been the best in the world at 800 free since 2012 and is a hot favourite in Paris. Then there is the 1500 and her other events. Dawn was the 100 free WR holder for over 14 years straight and as mentioned above didn’t get the chance to swim the 50 or 200 at major championships. Those two are on their… Read more »

Last edited 8 months ago by Mark69
Fraser Thorpe
Reply to  Mark69
8 months ago

Janet won, but had a very short period of being close to her WRs – less than 2 years at that level and never got near those times again.

Mary T was more consistent you’re right – 2:06 and a 58.1 relay split in ‘84 is no joke.

Yes Kantinka is up there, but that’s a slight step down to the next set of greats like Yana, Kaylee (for now, she may move up) Pelelgrini, Inge, Couglin, Bennet, Soni, Jones, Heyns etc

Donald
8 months ago

Revetting read. Dawn is legendary and continues to inspire. Love the comparison across generations and the insight into Dawn’s personality is fascinating.

Greeny
8 months ago

Summer McInsotsh can have 10 golds when her career all said and done she be 26 by Brisbane Games she has GOAT swimmer potential

Mark69
Reply to  Greeny
8 months ago

Possibly, but we can revisit the list in 2032. MOC may have 10 gold medals (including relays) by 2028. Kaylee may have won the backstroke double 3 times by then. We will just have to wait to see. But at the moment, IMO Katie and Dawn are the GOAT contenders.

Admin
Reply to  Greeny
8 months ago

Peoples’ sporting opinions are heavily influenced by the era where there fandom first bloomed. For a certain generation, it would probably take LA for them to be convinced that McKeown is greater than Egerszegi.

I think she can put herself on par with Egerszegi if she also wins the 200 IM. I think she needs LA to pass her. I’m not sure I can think of anyone in realistic position to put themselves into the GOAT conversation in Paris.

snailSpace
Reply to  Braden Keith
8 months ago

The Egerszegi vs McKeown discussion is also influenced by how dominant and ahead of her time Egerszegi was in the 90s. She lowered the WR from 2:08 to 2:06, a time which can still put a female backstroker into medal contention today, which means she really pushed the event forward. McKeown is the WR holder with a 2:03, but Regan Smith did it first, so it kind of feels like she would have to lower the WR to a 2:02 (maybe 2:01) to display the same kind of dominance.

Sub13
Reply to  Braden Keith
8 months ago

KM and EK discussion is very subjective.

If Kaylee wins the backstroke double again she will be the first woman to ever do it, and only second swimmer ever after Matthes. She is also the only woman to sweep backstrokes at worlds, and the only woman to hold WRs in all three backstrokes (concurrently or at all). KE definitely was historic, but Kaylee’s already achieved some historic achievements as well.

If KM wins the backstroke double and the 200IM, she equals KE’s individual Olympic golds. She then has another relay gold, and has more world championships and more world records (KM has 5 world records over 4 events, KE only ever broke each backstroke record once).

I agree that no… Read more »

Greeny
8 months ago

Can anyone competing today other then Katie be considered? Kaylee Mckeown is she does the 100/200m double in Paris and gold in the 200IM she has to be in discussion for sure she is probably the GOAT backstroker ever

Mark69
Reply to  Greeny
8 months ago

If Kaylee does the back double in Paris, she will have 4 backstroke gold, equal to Egerszegi, but Krisztina won hers over 3 Olympics. Both are/were amazing swimmers and each worthy of GOAT backstroker honours.

NoFastTwitch
8 months ago

How about Yana Klochkova for the greatest female swimmer most people have never heard of?

FST
Reply to  NoFastTwitch
8 months ago

Any serious swimmer, swammer or swim fan over the age of 25 has heard of Yana.

Last edited 8 months ago by FST
Admin
Reply to  FST
8 months ago

Yeah…she has 4 Olympic gold medals individually haha.

Though I might move the age up a few years from 25. Say, over 30. Her name most recently came up a lot during Katinka’s World Cup run, where I think a lot of people learned about Yana’s Katinka-esque World Cup performances.

NoFastTwitch
Reply to  FST
8 months ago

I’d bet Yana is by far the least well known and least celebrated of any of the people on the list in the article – even though only 3 of them have won more individual gold medals. So, yes, “serious” swimmers/swammers may have heard of her, but she still stands out on that list.

Robbos
8 months ago

Could DAWN FRASER be considered the greatest female swimmer of all time? YES, IMO, it would be between Dawn & Ledecky.
Because Ledecky did it, I would put her at #1.

Top 5 for me Ledecky, Dawn, Egerszegi, Shane Gould & Janet Evans.

Mark69
Reply to  Robbos
8 months ago

Hard to argue with that 5, although maybe Caulkins just pips Evans.

Admin
Reply to  Mark69
8 months ago

Probably comes down to what you value.

Caulkins’ versatility? Evans’ rote dominance? What they did accomplish versus what they might have accomplished, were it not for the boycott?

About Stephen Thomas

Stephen Thomas

A very different start to ending up poolside, with management positions in consumer banking and credit card business. Steve set-up a consultancy in consumer research and communications and soon after was charged with the concept development and ongoing marketing for Australia’s leading sports publication, Inside Sport magazine in 1991. In …

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