Australian Olympic star Dawn Fraser is doing “so much better” but is “not out of the woods yet” according to her daughter Dawn-Lorraine told media this week.
“She is typical mum. She is up walking and as you know she was told to slow down, because she was walking too far and too fast,” Ward said of her mom’s recovery. “She has had a new hip, she has broken four ribs and she has a gash in her left arm.”
“It’s been scary … I thought we were going to lose her and I was told by the doctor that we were probably going to have to face that, and I couldn’t face that. Because even though she’s my mum I’ve always thought of her as being invincible.”
Ward says that she received a call from doctors asking if they wanted to resuscitate her mother if the latest round of surgeries faced complications.
“I said, are you serious? Are you asking me this question? Do you not know my mother?” she said.
“That’s the worst question someone could ask you when you’re not ready for it, and I said, ‘Yes, you will resuscitate her, my mother’s a fighter and you will make sure that you do everything to save her’.”
Fraser won three consecutive Olympic gold medals in the 100 meter freestyle in 1956, 1960, and 1964 before infamously being banned by the Australian Amateur Swimming Association for 10 years for allegedly stealing an Olympic flag from a flagpole outside of the Emperor’s palace in Tokyo.
After retiring from competition, she began working at the pub at the Riverview Hotel in Balmain while working as a swim coach. She eventually moved into politics, being elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 1988.
