Olympic Swimming Throughout History

105552
Nov 10, 2010
3 min read

The following provides an insight into the different competition pools that were in use throughout the Olympics and also a short summary of any outstanding Australian achievements that were made.

ATHENS, 1896

PARIS, 1900

Fred Lane claimed gold in both the 200m freestyle and the 200m obstacle race in Paris, 1900. This was Australia's first swimming gold medals.

ATHENS, 1906

LONDON, 1908

STOCKHOLM, 1912

The 1912 Stockholm Olympic Games saw Australia's first female Olympian, swimmer Fanny Durack, compete in the 100m freestyle.

Australia claimed their first gold medal in a relay with a team comprised of Cecil Healy, Harold Hardwick, Les Boardman and Malcom Champion.

All of the medals won by Australia at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, two gold, two silver and two bronze, were all claimed in the swimming events.

ANTWERP, 1920

At the Antwerp Olympic Games 1920, Frank and Lily Beaurepaire were the first siblings to represent Australia in swimming.

Lily Beaurepaire was the only female on the swim team at that point.

PARIS, 1924

AMSTERDAM, 1928

LOS ANGELES, 1932

At the Los Angeles Olympics in 1932, Clare Dennis won the gold medal in the 200m breastroke, becoming Australia's second ever female Olympic gold medallist, and the first female to win gold in a stroke other than freestyle.

BERLIN, 1936

LONDON, 1948

HELSINKI, 1952

Australia only claimed a single medal at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, It was a gold in the 200m breastroke, won by John Davies who became the first male to ever claim a breastroke medal.

MELBOURNE, 1956

Australia's Olympic swim team had the most successful Olympics to this day at Melbourne 1956 when they claimed eight gold, four silver and two bronze medals.

ROME, 1960

Australian sibling swim stars, John and Ilsa Konrads, both medalled at the 1960 Rome Olympics with Ilsa claiming silver in the 4 x 100m freestyle relay alongside Dawn Fraser, Lorraine Crapp and Alva Colquhoun, and John caliming gold in the 1500m freestyle and bronze in the 400m freestyle and the 4 x 200m freestyle relay.

TOKYO, 1964

At the Tokyo Olympics in 1964, Robert Windle became the third Australian to win gold in the 1500m freestyle, following on from John Konrads in Rome 1960 and Murray Rose in Melbourne 1956.

Australia won its first ever butterfly gold medal in Tokyo 1964, with Kevin Berry claiming the gold in the 200m butterfly in a world record time.

MEXICO, 1968

Michael Wenden won gold in the 100m and 200m freestyle, becoming the first Australian swimmer to ever do so.

MUNICH, 1972

Shane Gould won three individual gold medals at the 1972 Munich Olympics, becoming the first female Australian swimmer to ever do so. She won gold in the 200m individual medley, 200m and 400m freestyle

MONTREAL, 1976

[if !supportLists]Australian only won a single swimming medal at the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games. A bronze in the 1500m freestyle was claimed by Stephen Holland. It was Australia's poor performance at these Olympics that prompted the creation of the Australian Institute of Sport.

MOSCOW, 1980

Australia's only swimming gold medal at the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games was won by Michelle Ford in the 800m freestyle.

LOS ANGELES, 1984

Australia's only swimming gold medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games was won by Jon Sieben in the 200m butterfly.

SEOUL, 1988

BARCELONA, 1992

ATLANTA, 1996

Kieren Perkins won the gold in the 1500m freestyle at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics after having won gold in the same event at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

SYDNEY, 2000

At the time, Australia's swimming medal tally, consisting of 18 medals (five gold, nine silver and four bronze) was Australia's greatest number of medals at a single Olympics.

ATHENS, 2004

BEIJING, 2008

LONDON, 2012

After winning five individuals Olympic swimming medals at a single event, Alicia Coutts became the third Australian to do so. This success had previously only been achieved by Shane Gould and Ian Thorpe.of all-time to win five individual medals at one Olympic Games in London 2012, equaling Shane Gould and Ian Thorpe.