The “Swimming World” magazine has just published a story, written by Craig Lord. It discusses the transition that has taken place since the pioneers of women’s swimming first participated in Olympic swimming. It is well worth a read. Here is the link.

https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/ethelda-bleibtreys-pioneering-world-record-100-years-ago-this day/?fbclid=IwAR3RWWhACpcC_voXxxmerp2twD_07q_y0g13eXnZwD7knpCSBSd9qd9GsqE

The occasion that prompted Craig Lord’s attention was the 100th anniversary of the first women’s world record over 440 yards freestyle set by, American, Ethelda Bleibtrey. It is not until you read this stuff that you realise the amazing, catastrophic and disastrous prejudices women have had to overcome to take part in sport. It is unbelievable.

For example in the same year Bleibtrey broke the 440 yard record, she was arrested in New York for removing her stockings before wading in for a swim. The charges accused her of “nude bathing” and indecency.

In 1912 the Australian Federation decided it was pointless sending women to the Olympic Games. Evidently the Australian public forced a change of heart. Two women were picked to represent Australia as long as they paid for themselves. One hundred and seven years later and Swimming New Zealand (SNZ) is doing the same thing. The only difference is, in this enlightened era, SNZ is making men pay for themselves as well. Only SNZ would achieve equality by moving everyone backwards.

Craig Lord’s story is well worth reading. But it is not just in the USA and Europe that bigotry ran riot. New Zealand has had its fair share. It is not so very long ago that the President of Athletics New Zealand was quoted as saying, “No woman should be selected for the Olympic Games if a good man was available.”

It seems like only yesterday that the IAAF was telling the world women were unable to compete over distances longer than 800m. The woman’s world record, held by Paula Radcliffe, for a marathon is 2.15, so I’m not too sure what happened to their 800m theory. In swimming the Neanderthals who run the Olympic Games still do not allow women to swim 1500m. Evidently anything longer than 800m is too tough for their delicate femininity. Their sexist rules seems oblivious to the reality that Katie Ledecky’s world record time of 15:20.48 would have won the men’s event at every Olympic Games up to and including 1972.

Every world or national record is a major achievement. But it seems that some records more dramatically lift the sport forward. The most obvious example is Roger Bannister breaking four minutes for a mile. Here is a table of records I think have had a profound effect on woman’s freestyle swimming.

Those are swimmers who have improved the world freestyle standards. But what about New Zealand? Here is the same table for when these records occurred in New Zealand.

Just look, for a moment, at the three names on the New Zealand record table – Rebecca Perrott, Lauren Boyle and Judith Wright. Rebecca Perrott we all know won a gold medal in the women’s 200 metres freestyle at the 1978 Commonwealth Games and was fourth in the women’s 400m freestyle at the 1976 Summer Olympics. Lauren Boyle competed at three Commonwealth Games and three Olympic Games and held the world short course 1500m record.

But in an unusual way, Judith Wright, the first NZ woman to swim under five minutes for 400m and ten minutes for 800m, is most remarkable. You see besides moving swimming forward in the pool she went on to own and manage a highly successful swimming business – the Waterhole Swimming Club. Here is how the Stuff website recently reported the Waterhole’s 30^th birthday.

What’s unusual about all that is that Judith Wright not only moved her sport forward in the pool – she began and managed a successful business back in the days when women were “not allowed” to do that sort of thing. She broke records inside the pool and, probably even more importantly, changed the accepted role of women outside the pool. They probably don’t think of themselves this way but NZ’s sporting suffragettes have and still are making a huge difference to the better place our country is today.