Life in swimming's fast lane

Dawn Fraser is the ultimate Aussie battler. Her autobiography One Hell of a Life is an understatement writes FIONA HAWTIN.

Australians adore champions - and if their sporting prowess is matched by a bit of character, the champions are likely to be clasped even tighter to the national heart.

Few have fitted the bill better than Dawn Fraser. At the Sydney Olympics 2000, more than 30 years since Fraser was active in her sport, her reception was as warm as that for the current track darling, Cathy Freeman.

Fraser was a truly spectacular champion. She won gold medals over three consecutive Olympic Games, starting with two at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, before picking up another at the Rome Olympics in 1960 and a final gold in Tokyo in 1964. Her total Olympic medal count is four gold, four silver.

Along the way she broke many records. She was the first woman to swim 100m freestyle in under a minute, collecting a mountain of awards and titles. She was declared a National Living Treasure in 1990, and in 1999 she won the World Female Swimmer of the Century Award in a ceremony also honouring Mohammed Ali, Nadia Comaneci and Carl Lewis.

But Fraser certainly wasn't always on the right side of Australia's sporting establishment. She was banned for 10 years by the Australian Swimming Union on her return from Tokyo, the official version being that she failed to wear the official swimsuit and had marched in the opening ceremony against orders. The ban was lifted three years later, but it was too late for swimming's original wild child to make it to what would have been her fourth Olympics.

Her private life was not as easy as a swim in lane four, either. The working-class hero has been an independent MP, a publican, survived a failed marriage to a jealous gambler, several failed relationships, two of which were with women, the death of her mother as a result of an accident in a car she was driving, a rape and a broken neck.

The title of her autobiography Dawn: One Hell of a Life is an understatement.

Like many Australians, Fraser was swimming at the age of 4. By 14, she was training with Harry Gallagher, who was to remain her coach through her career. Back then, in 1951, swimming pools were primitive, especially the Drummoyne Pool.

"It's still there today but is now a very different place," she writes. "Back then, when Harry was the caretaker and resident coach, the water had to be pumped in from the river, unlike our tidal pool at Balmain. We were always catching things from it because it wasn't chlorinated, and so became stagnant during the weeks between pumping the water in and out.

"And there was often rubbish like banana skins, lolly papers, drink bottles and industrial chemicals in the pool. When the pool was emptied it would be lime-washed. The kids suffered from ear infections, colds, flu, sore throats and more. You name it, we caught it.

"The concrete lining of the pool meant the water was even colder than in the harbour. Usually it was about 64 deg Fahrenheit (18 deg C) but sometimes got down to 60. Nobody wore goggles at that time and as I used to swim with my eyes open they were often sore.

"As there were no starting blocks, Harry made us dive from the third step of the ladder down into the pool. This led to years of grazed and bruised toes, but it also made me a bloody fast diver off the blocks."

Fraser endured because of the way swimming made her feel.

"It is a glorious feeling and the best way I can explain it is to tell people to think of how the water looks in biblical films when Moses parts the Red Sea to let his people through. It feels as if that's what the water is doing."

After years of sore eyes, ear aches, wet hair and asthma attacks, Fraser reached her first Olympics in Melbourne. Her main rival was another Australian swimmer, Lorraine Crapp.

"As I waited in the marshalling area before the final I found myself practising gamesmanship to ward off nerves. It wasn't something I'd been taught, I just had it in me and I have to admit it is not something I'm especially proud of.

"I would eye off the opposition and be fairly aggressive with my body language - stalking around and staring at my opponents. There were many times when I believe I demoralised other swimmers. It was cruel behaviour and I hate to think about it now, but it was a weapon I used time and again.

"I was in lane four and Lorraine in five. Lane four is given to the fastest swimmer and then five, three and six. I was never a great lover of lane four because it became so churned up when everyone was racing.

"We went together on the first lap and then Lorraine got a great turn and mine was pretty ordinary. In the last 25m I could see Lorraine under the water and realised we were still pretty even, so for the last few strokes I didn't breathe and just managed to beat her in my best time ever of 62 seconds. It was a new world and Olympic record. It was bloody amazing."

Fraser was a swimmer first and foremost. But she also became a celebrity who got to do the things celebrities do, like meet the Queen on the Royal Yacht Britannia. But some people never let her forget she's just a girl from Balmain.

"While I was looking at the books, the Queen came into the room and after greeting a few people she came up to me and we talked for about 15 minutes. We talked about her history books, and she told me about her experiences during the war when she was driving trucks, and how once she'd got a flat tyre and had to change it in heavy rain in waist-deep mud.

"She mentioned that all the trucks were run on methane gas and I told her about the mine in Birchgrove and the methane gas supplied from there. I thought she was tremendous.

"After we'd finished chatting and just before we were called in to lunch, Dame Patti Menzies, the wife of the then Prime Minister, came up to me and began telling me loudly not to forget my manners. She asked if I knew how to use a knife and fork and said she hoped I'd be all right.

"I felt like giving her a piece of my mind but assured her I had been trained very nicely by my mother and father, thank you, although sometimes we just used our fingers.

"There it was again, the double life: invited to dine with the Queen in a select group and then looked down upon by petty people who felt they were better than I was. I didn't let her spoil my day, though.

"At lunch I was seated next to Prince Philip, who was aware of what Dame Patti had said to me in the library, and he gently sent her up by laboriously explaining in a mock-serious teaching voice that I should start from the outside and work my way in, and if we skipped a course I should also skip the cutlery.

"I had never cared for Menzies himself either after I'd learned about him selling our iron ore to the Japanese during the Second World War."

In her private life Fraser was very innocent and she describes her first sexual experience as what would now be called date rape after she drank too much at a party. It happened shortly before a trip to New Zealand.

"We were feted by the Maori and I was made an honorary princess of a tribe in Rotorua. I remained friends with one of their real princesses, Princess Raui, and we played golf together in later years.

"Then just before the end of the trip Harry sent me a cable to say a pregnancy test was positive and I should return home immediately. I used Pop's illness as an excuse and left.

"On the way back to Adelaide I stopped in Sydney for a day to give Mum and Pop an enormous Christmas ham I'd been given just before leaving New Zealand. Then it was straight back on the plane to meet Harry.

"He already had a doctor organised so I took off once again for Melbourne to have an abortion. It went against every instinct I had and I did seriously think about going ahead with the pregnancy."

Fraser later had a daughter, Dawn-Lorraine, during her marriage to bookmaker Gary Ware.

But she continued to be unlucky and was raped again as she good-naturedly delivered some beers to one of her friends, nicknamed Fat Face, who was drinking with some sailors on a Swedish ship.

"The sailor got up to show Ray where to go and as he came back into the cabin he shut the door behind him and locked it. I was instantly terrified and started to plead with him, saying my daughter was waiting for me, but he pushed me up into the corner of the cabin and told me to get undressed.

"I managed to reach for a bottle opener and started to fight back but then he produced a knife. He held it straight to my throat, so I wasn't sure how big the knife was, and he told me to take my clothes off. I started to undress slowly, hoping that Fat Face would miraculously reappear, then my bracelet caught on my sleeve and he became very agitated.

"In the next 40 minutes he ripped my clothes off and raped me. When I screamed and struggled he became even more aggressive, and I began to think he would possibly kill me and throw me overboard."

The judge ruled there was insufficient evidence for a trial.

After her marriage broke up, Fraser met scriptwriter Joy Cavill, who wanted to make a film of her life. They became romantically involved.

"I became very comfortable with Joy and after a few months the relationship also became physical. I was very surprised at this turn of events, and also very embarrassed about it. From the beginning I felt a terrible awkwardness and also a certain amount of shame.

"I couldn't reconcile what was happening with other parts of my life, such as being a mother, being a public person and being part of a close-knit traditional family. But the comfort of the relationship and the safeness I felt in Joy's company for a time outweighed the guilt and confusion I felt about having a love affair with a woman.

"There had been so many rumours about my sexuality circulating during my Olympic career, even though I had never been involved with a woman, or a man for that matter, that I now started to think perhaps I could be gay. After all, that's what people had always said about me and now I was actually sleeping with a woman.

"On the other hand, I never felt I wanted to apply that label to myself and I still don't because it doesn't explain who I was then and not who I am now. Nor is it anyone's business to know about the sexual side of my life, whatever it embraces, unless they are my partner at the time. In numerous media interviews I have denied the suggestion that I am gay because I truly don't regard myself as gay."

The second relationship with a woman mentioned in the book is when she took on the lease of her Balmain local for five years before she had to give it up after breaking her neck falling down the cellar. She and her partner had just split.

But the Riverview years, as she calls them, had some good times too. "I was surprised by the crew of Channel 7's This Is Your Life, who came to do an episode of the programme about me. My partner had set it all up, but hadn't thought about the implications of me playing an illegal card game in the pub when the camera crew came through the door that Friday night.

"I kept thinking, 'Why am I playing cards when we're so busy?' The pub was absolutely chock-a-block but the guys had conned me into playing cards by challenging me as the prevailing champion in the pub tournament at the time. I protested but they kept insisting. They even made me sit in the chair I hated by reassuring me it would allow me to keep an eye on the pub.

"When I saw the camera lights beaming in through the door and windows I thought, 'Shit, I'm being raided,' and took off out the door and down the street, where I was intercepted by Roger Climpson, the host at the time, who handed me the famous red book."

It was typical of hard-case Fraser to be illegally gambling in her own pub. The public were used to her high spirits from her days as a swimmer. She was involved in the "flag incident" in Tokyo when she went to take an Olympic flag for a souvenir. She and some of the Australian hockey players managed to grab one when they heard whistles. She stuffed it under her tracksuit top.

"I could see the police coming towards the bushes and they started beating them with batons. We were hit a couple of times and then Howard called out, 'We'd better run, Fraser!' I replied, still having great fun, 'It's all right for you; I can't run, I'm a swimmer.'

"I was aware the Japanese police carried guns. After about 10 minutes I decided I'd make a break for it and jumped down from the wall that ran across the top of the rise where I'd been hiding. My ankle twisted under me as I landed, but I ignored the pain and ran on towards a low hedge, about three feet tall.

"I went to jump over the hedge, not realising it had barbed wire on top, and for a few moments I was spread-eagled on the wire as I desperately tried to untangle myself and jump down.

"Unfortunately this time I landed in a pond and found myself waist-deep in cold, murky water. At least now I was more in my element. I stayed very quietly in the pond for about another 15 minutes. It began to get very cold and the pond was a bit smelly.

"I decided to climb back over the hedge, making sure not to get tangled in the wire again, and when I saw a park bench, sat down to get my bearings and think about what to do next.

"Just when I was working out where I was in the park, two policemen came along, and one of them put his hand on my shoulder and spoke to me in Japanese. The only word I recognised was konichiwa and I replied 'Gidday,' which didn't seem to get me very far."

Back at the station, she made it known she was Dawn Fraser, swimmer. The superintendent said, "Oooh, you very naughty girl." She agreed, saying "Yes, I very naughty girl." Later the police presented her with the souvenir - "the bloody flag that has haunted me for the rest of my life".

In Australian they call it being a true Aussie battler. And they love her all the more for it.