Fanny Durack
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Sarah Frances "Fanny" Durack (October 27, 1889 – March 21, 1956) was an Australian swimmer. From 1910 until 1918 she was the world's greatest female swimmer of all distances from free-style sprints to the mile marathon.[1]
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[edit] Life and career
Durack was born in Sydney, Australia in 1889.
Durack learned to swim in Sydney's Coogee Baths using breaststroke, the only style for which there was a championship for women at that time. In 1906 she won her first title, and over the next few years, dominated the Australian swimming scene. In the 1910-11 swimming season, Mina Wylie beat Durack in the 100 yards breaststroke and the 100 and 220 yards freestyle at the Australian Swimming Championships at Rose Bay. The two went on to become close friends.
Durack and Wylie were initially refused permission to compete in the Olympics. The New South Wales Ladies Swimming Association later allowed them to go provided they bore their expenses. Durack set a new world record in the heats of the 100 m freestyle.
In the late 1910s, she held every women's swimming world record from 100 m to a mile.
[edit] Death and legacy
Durack died in Sydney in 1956. She was interred with her late husband in Waverley Cemetery. Fanny Durack Pool[2] in Petersham, Sydney, is named in her honour.
[edit] Records
[edit] Olympic Records
- 1912 gold (100m freestyle)
[edit] World records
- 100 yard freestyle (1912 to 1921)
- 100m freestyle (1912 to 1920)
- 220 yard freestyle (1915 to 1921)
- 500m freestyle (1916 to 1917)
- 1 mile (1914 to 1926)
Fanny Durack was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1967.
[edit] Notes and references
- David Wallechinsky, The Complete Book of the Summer Olympics, Little, Brown and Company (1996)
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