Just the [Archival] Facts PLC and the Olympics: Elizabeth Walker (née Fraser)

This is the third of a series of articles about staff and students who have been members of Australian Olympic Teams.

For the Record In 1956 the Olympic Games were held in Melbourne and fifteen-year-old PLC student Elizabeth Elizabeth Walker (née Fraser) Fraser was a member of the Australian Team. Elizabeth had been a student here since Years at PLC: 1946; indeed, she was “the only one in Kindergarten who could dive for pennies in the shallow end 1946 – 1957 Won the Senior Championship at the All Schools of the school pool”. Swimming Sports in the record time of 30.4 seconds, 1957 Sport: “I can’t remember being taught how to swim,” Elizabeth smiled, “I seem to have always known how. Swimming My mother couldn’t swim, so she didn’t teach me. I grew up in Stanmore but we often visited Competitions: relatives in Dee Why and Collaroy on Sundays and we always swam then. The sports teacher told Australian Junior Championship 1955, 200 m freestyle my parents that I would benefit from swimming training, so when I was 12 my parents arranged for Olympic Games, Melbourne, 1956 me to start training at the Enfield pool.”

”My father drove me every morning around 5.30 am and stayed at the pool while I had training,” she continued.”He would have a swim himself and then wait for me to finish. He would drive me home for a quick breakfast, and then I’d take the train to PLC. My mother took me to training after school.”

Elizabeth Fraser at Enfield Pool after winning the Swimming Team, 1957 Elizabeth Fraser wearing the official uniform of the Australian Junior Championship Elizabeth is standing at the extreme right Australian Olympic Team for the 200 m freestyle in 1955 1956 Melbourne Olympics Frank Guthrie was her coach. Guthrie trained several Olympians, including . Elizabeth and Lorraine both joined the Cabarita Swimming Club. The hard training paid dividends: in 1955 Elizabeth won the Australian Junior Championship in the 200 m freestyle event. In the lead-up to selection for the 1956 Olympic team, she was invited to train at the Tobruk pool in Townsville. At that time there weren’t many indoor pools and the training season for swimmers was extended by travelling to the warmer climate.

An Olympian from the 1956 Games carries the torch Elizabeth holds the pocket from her blazer from the Elizabeth looks through her scrapbook for the Sydney Games in 2000 Melbourne Olympic Games

The Olympic Games had not been held in before, so being part of the Australian team in 1956 was especially exciting. Elizabeth marched in the Opening and Closing ceremonies. Female team members received two skirts and two berets, cream and grey, to wear with the green blazer. Swimmers received two swimming suits and two track suits, plus a supply of Palmolive brand toiletries.

According to Elizabeth, “My best event was the 200 m freestyle but this wasn’t one of the events at the 1956 Olympics.” So she became one of six chosen for the 4 x 100 m freestyle relay team. In a cruel twist of fate she just missed out in the final selection of the four to swim the relay and so did not swim. It was a bitter personal disappointment, although the team, which included and Lorraine Crapp, captured a gold medal for the event.

Post 1956 Olympics “After the Olympics I continued to train for two years, but when I missed out in being selected for the 1958 Empire Games I stopped swimming,” Elizabeth relates. “It was time to move on and do something else.” She sat the Intermediate Certificate exams at PLC -- in Miss Macindoe’s office -- before she went to Townsville for training and then went to business college. This training led to work in a solicitor’s office.

Elizabeth taught her two children to swim and, more recently, her two grandchildren. She joined a triathlon club in the and ran triathlons and fun runs until she turned 65 years of age. Living near the beach in one of Sydney’s southern suburbs, Elizabeth and her husband swim a mile most mornings. “I made a lot of friends at the Olympics. I think the experience made me enjoy sports more,” she asserts. Reflections and advice Elizabeth Walker (née Fraser) was an Olympian more than 50 years ago. Have our attitudes toward sport, and the Olympics in particular, changed? Elizabeth believes they have. “I think swimming was more fun then. There wasn’t so much pressure to get a medal. Our parents paid for most of our training and maybe we got a medal. Today it’s a business now and money is an incentive. Winning is too important now.”

Her advice for any would-be Olympians at her old school today can be summed up in one word: enjoyment. “Just go for it,” she advises, “but remember, you must enjoy it. If you don’t enjoy it, don’t do it.”

Sources: Interview with Elizabeth Walker, July 2012, Aurora Australis, Wikipedia