Latest / The Front / Swimming rebel’s act of defiance

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Swimming rebel’s act of defiance · The Front

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 1: It's Monday, June three. It'll be a decade before the
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  Speaker 1: Albanese government's huge boost in defense spending makes our military stronger,
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  Speaker 1: ninety three disappearance. You can catch the ex wife's account
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  Speaker 1: of her unhappy marriage in episode three, exclusively for subscribers
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  Speaker 1: now at Bronwyn po podcast dot com. The Australian is
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  Speaker 1: turning sixty and to celebrate the milestone, our journalists and
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: editors are delving into the archives to reflect on how
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  Speaker 1: Australia and the paper has changed in the past six decades. Today,
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  Speaker 1: with the Paris Olympics just around the corner, we hear
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  Speaker 1: the story of a young swimmer whose youthful defiance denied
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  Speaker 1: her a glittering career. There's a bit of Australian sports
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  Speaker 1: law that almost everyone knows or thinks they know. Dawn Fraser,
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  Speaker 1: then widely considered the greatest swimmer of all time, was
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  Speaker 1: banned from swimming for a decade in nineteen sixty five.
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  Speaker 2: Like most Australians, Dawn is upset by the drastic action
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  Speaker 2: which we'll finish her swimming career.
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  Speaker 1: In an exclusive statement to Sydney radio station two Yue,
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  Speaker 1: she's a but.
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  Speaker 3: I'm not going to sit there and let's people say
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  Speaker 3: my name.
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  Speaker 1: And here's what the man and woman in the street
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  Speaker 1: think of it. Many people believe Fraser was banned for
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  Speaker 1: stealing a flag from the Emperor's palace while in Tokyo
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  Speaker 1: for the nineteen sixty four Olympics, a crime for which
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  Speaker 1: she was arrested, but the champion swimmer apologized and the
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  Speaker 1: charges were dropped. The Emperor even let Fraser keep the
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  Speaker 1: flag as a gift. The band came about for another reason. Entirely.
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  Speaker 3: What I discovered was that, in fact, at those Olympic Games,
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  Speaker 3: there was an opening ceremony. Obviously, everyone wanted to march
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  Speaker 3: at the opening ceremony.
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  Speaker 1: Fiona Heirari is a writer for the Weekend Australian magazine.
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  Speaker 3: But the Australian officials told Australian athletes that if they
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  Speaker 3: were competing in the first three days of competition, because
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  Speaker 3: they might become fatigued, they could not march in the
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  Speaker 3: opening ceremony. Apparently someone turned up at the athletes village
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  Speaker 3: and said, look, maybe we should march, and at least
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  Speaker 3: four people Australian female swimmers decided that they would try
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  Speaker 3: and get to the opening ceremony.
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  Speaker 1: Two of those women were nabbed by Olympics officials before
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  Speaker 1: they could board the team bus to the opening ceremony.
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  Speaker 1: But Dawn Fraser and another swimmer, Marlene Damon, who was
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  Speaker 1: just fourteen years old at the time and in Tokyo
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  Speaker 1: to compete in the women's one hundred meter backstroke, boarded
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  Speaker 1: the bus and evaded detection.
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  Speaker 3: And I'm told it's because they were sitting behind someone
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  Speaker 3: who was reading a broadsheet newspaper, possibly the Australian that
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  Speaker 3: happened to obscure them.
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  Speaker 1: Fraser and Damon did march at that opening ceremony, then
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  Speaker 1: went on to compete in Tokyo. Fraser put on a
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  Speaker 1: characteristically world class performance, winning gold in the women's one
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  Speaker 1: hundred meter freestyle and becoming the first swimmer to win
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  Speaker 1: the same event three times.
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  Speaker 2: Play Fraser, Australia, You're a start away, not crasure one
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  Speaker 2: way number four, Well pleasure where number before?
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  Speaker 1: Marlene Damon placed sixth in her heat and it looked
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  Speaker 1: like she and Fraser had got away with their cheeky
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  Speaker 1: opening ceremony stunt. But less than a year later, in
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  Speaker 1: March of nineteen sixty five, the Australian Swimming Union handed
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  Speaker 1: down the band that still reverberates through swimming. Fraser out
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  Speaker 1: for ten years. Marlene Damon copped a three year ban.
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  Speaker 1: She'd only just turned fifteen, but it effectively ended a
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  Speaker 1: once promising career in the pool.
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  Speaker 3: So I was really keen to find out what had
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  Speaker 3: happened to Marlene because really nothing much had been reported
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  Speaker 3: about her then, which makes sense she didn't swim again
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  Speaker 3: competitively after the age of fifteen. Some of the others
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  Speaker 3: did appeal their band, some of them did swim afterwards.
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  Speaker 3: Linda McGill, who was one of the women who tried
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  Speaker 3: to board the bus became a champion long distance swimmer,
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  Speaker 3: but I couldn't find any reference to Marlene Damon having
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  Speaker 3: swum again.
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  Speaker 1: Fiona went in search of Marlene Damon for a series
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  Speaker 1: of articles she's written for The Australian's sixtieth anniversary celebrations.
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  Speaker 3: So after trying to find her everywhere, I finally worked
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  Speaker 3: out where she lived. I found her phone number. I
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  Speaker 3: kept ringing her and there was no answer. I was
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  Speaker 3: in Adelaide for another story, and I thought, I'm just
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  Speaker 3: going to have to try and knock on her door,
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  Speaker 3: which is not something I tend to do, but I
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  Speaker 3: was really keen to get her in the story. And
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  Speaker 3: I was literally in a taxi on the way to
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  Speaker 3: her house when I had located her brother by chance,
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  Speaker 3: who was a businessman also in Adelaide, and I'd rung
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  Speaker 3: him and he ragged me as I was literally in
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  Speaker 3: the taxi on the way to her place, and he said, yes, yes, sure,
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  Speaker 3: I'm sure she'd be happy to talk to you. He
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  Speaker 3: gave me a number, so instead of getting the taxi
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  Speaker 3: to pull up outside her house, I got it to
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  Speaker 3: stop at the pub nearby. I rang her and she
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  Speaker 3: was just by chance at home that day, and she said,
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  Speaker 3: I'd be thrilled to talk to you. I'd be really
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  Speaker 3: happy to talk to you. And I said, oh, I'm
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  Speaker 3: just in the neighborhood. So I walked down to her
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  Speaker 3: house and ten minutes after I was on her front
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  Speaker 3: balcony and we had a fantastic talk. And how do
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  Speaker 3: you feel all these years later when you're watching the
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  Speaker 3: Olympic Games swimming?
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  Speaker 2: Oh? I love it and I enjoy it.
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  Speaker 1: I feel as though, you know, you can relate very
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  Speaker 1: well to it, even though it's changed a lot. It's
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  Speaker 1: a much bigger event now, and.
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  Speaker 3: She's an amazing woman who's actually lived a really positive,
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  Speaker 3: fantastic life. But none of us will ever know the
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  Speaker 3: true champion she could have been, because effectively that was
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  Speaker 3: the end of her swimming career.
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  Speaker 1: It's a real throwback to the days that probably haven't
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  Speaker 1: really left us, where amateur sports are run by blazer
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  Speaker 1: clad men who have the lives and hopes of young,
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  Speaker 1: very young, quite vulnerable people who often make not very
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  Speaker 1: great decisions in their hands, don't they. It's a really
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  Speaker 1: tough penalty for these young women.
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  Speaker 3: It seemed so unfair, it's so harsh for someone who
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  Speaker 3: she's fifteen, And I asked her, why did you march?
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  Speaker 3: And I'm not sure that she'd ever talked to a
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  Speaker 3: journalist about it actually till I appeared on her doorstep
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  Speaker 3: and I asked her why she marched, and she said, look,
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  Speaker 3: sport was really amateur in those days. There weren't any
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  Speaker 3: managers in the sense of having your own personal manager.
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  Speaker 3: No one was plotting a path for you. All she
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  Speaker 3: could see was the end of the pool. She's swimming,
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  Speaker 3: She's at the Olympics, she's fourteen. She doesn't know if
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  Speaker 3: she'll ever get back there again. And then months after
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  Speaker 3: the Olympics, before she was banned from swimming, she did
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  Speaker 3: so well in national competitions that she was being heralded
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  Speaker 3: as the next Doorn Fraser. But she couldn't see this
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  Speaker 3: future because no one was plotting her future. All she
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  Speaker 3: knew was that her mum would drive her to swimming
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  Speaker 3: every single morning. She'd swim and swim, and swim and swim,
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  Speaker 3: get on with life. She got to the Olympics and
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  Speaker 3: she was convinced she'd never get there again, and she
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  Speaker 3: did not want to miss out on a marching an
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  Speaker 3: Olympic opening ceremony, which I think many of us can
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  Speaker 3: relate to. I mean, I still will have a dream
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  Speaker 3: the marching at the Olympic ceremony, and so she did.
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  Speaker 3: She matched because she just saw I'll never get here again.
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  Speaker 1: And she was right.
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  Speaker 3: She never got there again.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Coming up lessons from sixty years of Australian journalism. Subscribers
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  Speaker 1: after this break. Fiona Harari is one of the greatest
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: chases I've ever known. She started her journalism career as
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: a cadet in the Age newspaper in Melbourne and has
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: spent much of her career at The Australian. She's a
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: fast talker and a total charmer, and she wins the
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: trust of her subject because she's ethical and thoughtful. She
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: spent much of the last few months thumbing through The
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: Australian's huge bound archives in search of stories like the
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: one you heard earlier in the episode. The Australian's Deputy editor,
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: Petra Reese, who's leading the sixtieth anniversary coverage, said she's
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: convinced Fiona can track down anyone anywhere, living or dead.
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: Well, it's a really special series and I am so
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: thrilled with how it's turned out. The backstory to it
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: is quite interesting. About twenty years ago, I was asked
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: to do a series for every weekend called ad Lib,
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: where I would find a classified ad and I would
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: write the story behind it.
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  Speaker 1: I remember this and you would. I remember you looking
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: through the classified you know, in either other papers or
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: our own papers, and finding what you thought might be
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: a good story.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, And I have to say when I was asked
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: to do it at first, I remember thinking this is
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: a really stupid idea work, but I'll try it, and
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: it turned out to be incredibly rewarding. So I'd find
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: these little ads and i'd ring the number up, And
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: the way I like to describe it often is I
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: might ring someone up who was advertising goats, and I'd say, Hi,
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: I'm ringing about your ad for the goats, and they'd go, oh,
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: do you want to buy the goats. Ok no, actually,
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: I'm a journalist at The Australian and anyway start chatting
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: to them, and very often, from something as obscure as
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: someone selling goats, you might end up with a story
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: about a tragedy in that family, or a really funny
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: story about something else. You just never knew where it went.
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: But very often the ad led to something entirely differently,
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: So some of the editors at The Australian decided for
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: the sixtieth clearly I could find people from ads. I
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: could find people who had been involved in previous news stories,
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: which is a great idea, except that when we had
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: lots of ads around the newspapers in those days came
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: with phone numbers and I was charged with finding one
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: new story for every decade the Australian's been published news
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: story that we had run, and then finding out what
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: happened next.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: The Front team sits not too far from Fionna in
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: The Australian's Sydney newsroom. For months we've heard her on
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: the phone in search of the people who appeared in
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: the pages years and even decades ago.
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: Very often what I did was google these people to
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: see if anything had been written about them, and the
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: second thing I did was to find out if they
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: were still alive, and as you can imagine, many people
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: weren't after fifty or sixty years. So then I would
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: try and find the people. Very often, as you can imagine,
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: from the fifties and sixties, they had incredibly common Anglo names,
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: people moved states. And then if I did finally find them,
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: which could take literally weeks to find people, and I
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: was not going to give up on any of them,
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: sometimes they would not want to talk, and I found
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: that mostly that was where there were a story that
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: had something to do with medicine, or there was a
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: sort of a medical backing to a story, so it
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: might be the first person through whatever treatment in at
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: or transplant recipients, et cetera. They were the ones who
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: tended not to want to talk. And I think that's
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: fair enough. But every time I got to a dead
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  Speaker 3: end with someone who was no longer alive or didn't
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: want to talk, I actually ended up with a better
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: story anyway. So that was quite good because I was
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: not going to give up on any of these stories.
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  Speaker 1: It was the trusty landline that yielded the best results.
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  Speaker 1: In Fiona's search.
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  Speaker 3: I have to say, after all these years of working,
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: I was so determined to find these people by the
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  Speaker 3: end of it. So you know, you can scour all
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: sorts of records online. There's nothing as good as a
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  Speaker 3: phone book. People forget some people, particularly for older people,
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  Speaker 3: are still listed in phone books. There's lots of records
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: you can access, but you still won't necessarily be able
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  Speaker 3: to contact the people because you actually need an email
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: adress or particularly a good old fashioned phone number is
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  Speaker 3: going to put you in touch most rapidly with people
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  Speaker 3: these days.
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  Speaker 1: Do you find Facebook useful ish.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, sort of. I mean I did reach out to
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  Speaker 3: some people through there, But interestingly I look the other
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  Speaker 3: day and the few people that I did reach out
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  Speaker 3: to through Facebook who I've subsequently interviewed, not one of
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  Speaker 3: them has actually seen my Facebook message. Yes, so I'm
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  Speaker 3: not so sure that it's that useful maybe for different demographics,
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  Speaker 3: for younger people who are on it all the time,
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  Speaker 3: although there were some younger people in this story and
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  Speaker 3: they didn't reply to the Facebook messages either.
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  Speaker 1: I think Facebook's now for old people they didn't reply.
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  Speaker 3: I'm not sure it's well.
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  Speaker 1: This exercise in reflection has been as illuminating for Fiona,
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: as we hope it will be for readers of The Australian.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: What have you observed about the way journalism and the
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: Australian have changed in those years.
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  Speaker 3: What I was really amazed about is how little the
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  Speaker 3: news has changed. I think we all feel at the
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: moment that the world is spinning slightly off its axes,
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: but in fact there was a similar mix of stories
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  Speaker 3: often in the paper about difficulties and wars in the
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: Middle East and in Europe and people being on edge.
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  Speaker 3: That was the one thing that really struck me, and
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: obviously as degrees of seriousness, but the same issues have
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: been around I think for a long time. There are
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: a lot more human interest stories. I felt back in
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: the fifties and sixties, coverage of women was a whole
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: other world. I mean, there are obviously a lot more
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: firsts that were being recognized. You know, there was the
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: first Aboriginal woman to be a social worker, for example.
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  Speaker 3: There are a lot more first because we're obviously a
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: much younger nation sixty years ago than we are now.
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  Speaker 3: But it was the sameness of a lot of news
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  Speaker 3: that really I found quite interesting.
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  Speaker 1: Fiona Harari is a writer with the Weekend Australian magazine.
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  Speaker 1: You can read her reflections on the australians past six
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: decades every week for the next six weeks, in the
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: paper and online at the Australian dot com. Dou