Ilsa Konrads

Ilsa Konrads

Ilsa Konrads at the 1960 Olympics
Personal information
Full name	Ilze Konrads
Nickname(s)	"Ilsa"
Nationality	Australia
Born	(1944-03-29) 29 March 1944 Riga, Latvia
Height	1.72 m (5 ft 8 in)
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Stroke(s)	Freestyle
Medal record Women's Swimming Competitor for  Australia Olympic Games Silver 1960 Rome 4×100 m freestyle relay British Empire and Commonwealth Games Gold 1958 Cardiff 400 m freestyle

Ilsa Konrads (Latvian: Ilze Konrade; born 29 March 1944 in Riga, Latvia) was an Australian freestyle swimmer of the 1950s and 1960s, who won silver in the 4×100 m freestyle relay at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.^[1] In her career, she set 12 individual world records, and after her swimming career ended, was the Australasian editor of Belle. Along with her brother John Konrads, who also set multiple world records, and won gold in the 1500 m freestyle, they were known as the Konrad Kids.

Career

Public Memorial to Uranquinty's link with World War II refugees – Olympic Swimmers John Konrads & Ilsa Konrads are in the bottom left corner

Born in Riga, Latvia, Konrads emigrated with her parents Janis and Elza, grandmother, elder sister Eve, and elder brother John in August 1944, initially to Germany. This came after Latvia's occupation by German troops during the Second World War and then re-occupation by Soviet troops. Living in Germany until 1949, their application to immigrate to the United States was refused on account of the large size of the family. They were relocated to a camp at Uranquinty, which was previously a base for the Royal Australian Air Force, in rural western New South Wales. There her father Janis taught the children to swim, fearing that they could drown in the many watering holes and dams in the camp.

Janis secured a job in Sydney as a dentist, and the family settled first in Pennant Hills and then Bankstown. Elza enrolled in the University of Sydney's dentistry program, as her qualification from the University of Riga was not recognized, but withdrew due to the demands of raising three children. Ilsa and her siblings attended Revesby Primary School, where one of the schoolteachers was Don Talbot. Talbot was an assistant to Frank Guthrie at the Bankstown Swimming Pool.

Every day, Ilsa and her elder brother John cycled to the Bankstown pool before sunrise, for a two-hour training session, before returning home for breakfast and then attending school. After school, they would cycle back to the pool and repeat the training regimen. In 1958, the results of Talbot's regime training began to materialize, when at the age of 13, she broke the 800 m and 880 yd freestyle world records at the New South Wales championships, and then defeated Lorraine Crapp to become the first woman to complete 440 yd under five minutes. She then defeated Crapp and Dawn Fraser at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff to win the 440 yd freestyle event. In the two years preceding the 1960 Summer Olympics, she set world records in the 440 yd, 400 m, 1500 m and 1650 yd events.

At the Olympics, she suffered from nerves and was eliminated in the heats of the 100 m freestyle, and managed fourth in the 400 m freestyle, some 12s slower than her personal best. She collected a silver in the 4×100 m freestyle relay, along with Fraser, Crapp and Alva Colquhuon. Her last competition was at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Perth, where she claimed silver in the 440 yd event.

After her retirement from competitive swimming, Konrads went into journalism, and eventually became the editor of Belle, 1975–1979, a leading Australian interior design magazine, and Vogue Living, 1979–1984 and 1992–1999. Konrads also worked for the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper and since 1999 has been running her own business.

Honours

Konrads was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1987.^[2] In 2000, she received an Australian Sports Medal.^[3]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ilsa Konrads.

• Andrews, Malcolm (2000). Australia at the Olympic Games. Sydney, New South Wales: ABC Books. pp. 236–238. ISBN 0-7333-0884-8. 
• Howell, Max (1986). Aussie Gold. Albion, Queensland: Brooks Waterloo. pp. 152–156. ISBN 0-86440-680-0. 

Records
Preceded by Jans Koster	Women's 1500 metres Freestyle World Record Holder (Long Course) 14 January 1960 – 8 September 1960	Succeeded by Jane Cederqvist