The Summer 1912 Olympics was held in Stockholm, Sweden from May 5 to July 27. Officials included 2,408 competitors from 28 countries in14 sports and 102 events. It was also the last time solid-gold medals were awarded. Although it was the fifth Summer Olympics, it was the first time women’s swimming and diving events were featured.
Inclusion was a triumph for female athletes.
The first modern International Olympics were held in Athens, Greece in 1896 with no female competitors allowed. Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the International Olympic Committee said that female athletes would be “impractical, uninteresting, unaesthetic, and incorrect.” But in 1900, a few early female Olympians got through the door to compete in five sports in which their legs could be “aesthetically” covered by long skirts.
By the Summer 1912 Olympics, women with competitive spirits and strong muscles were still considered by many to be unattractive, if not subversive. The female swimmers faced challenges both in and out of the water.
Meet a few of our favorite rebellious swimmers who would not accept “no” for an answer.
First, A Word About Annette Kellermann Swimsuits
Annette Kellermann’s created women’s swimsuits that shunned pantaloons at a time when women’s bathing costumes included a dress over bloomers with shoes and a hat. Her scandalous one-piece swimsuits were the iconic design that female swimmers wore at the Summer 1912 Olympics.
Kellermann (July 6, 1887 – November 6, 1975) reinvented beauty as a champion swimmer with a fierce defiance of accepted standards for female behavior. Kellermann (later spelled Kellerman) shattered norms as a fitness and beauty guru, entrepreneur and entertainer.
She established herself first in Australia and then Europe where she attempted to cross the English Channel. Next she broke into American vaudeville and feature films as the first human mermaid with her underwater ballet routines.
An evangelist for serious swimming as the key to lifelong health and beauty, she wore the typical men’s two-piece costume with a tee shirt and fitted shorts to the knee, give or take a few inches. Eventually she streamlined that to her famous one-piece Kellermann swimsuits.
Sarah (Fanny) Durack Made Solid Gold History
Australian competition swimmer Fanny Durack (1889–1956) learned to swim in the Coogee Baths, a tidal swimming pool in South-eastern Sydney, Australia. She trained in breaststroke, which was the only style that offered a championship for women. Durack won her first state title in 1906 and was considered the world’s dominant female swimmer in sprints, freestyle and the mile marathon from 1910 to 1918.
When it was announced women would be invited to compete in the Summer 1912 Olympics, some countries jumped at the opportunity. The New South Wales Ladies’ Amateur Swimming Association forbade women to appear in competitions when men were present, but the public demanded that she be allowed to compete in the 1912 Summer Olympics.
Only 27 women took part in the two swimming events, the 100 freestyle and 400 freestyle relay. The United States sent no women, despite sending a team of seven men.
Sweden and Great Britain entered six athletes each. Australia sent two swimmers, Durack and Wilhelmina (Mina) Wylie.
Because Wylie beat Durack on several occasions at the Australian Championships, she was considered a gold-medal favorite as much as Durack.
Getting to the Olympics, however, proved to be an issue for Durack and Wylie, with politics playing a role.
According to John Lohn, Editor-in-Chief of Swimming World Magazine, the Australian men in charge of selecting the team for the Summer 1912 Olympics declared that it was a waste of time and money to send women to the games.
Thanks to a public outcry, A public outcry Durack and Wylie were allowed to make the journey to Europe if they paid their own way. The wife of sporting and theatrical entrepreneur and newspaper proprietor Hugh McIntosh, raised donations from the public for both Durack and Wylie to attend the Summer 1912 Olympics.
“The competition pool was hardly high-tech in nature, constructed in Stockholm Harbor and consisting of salt water. But Durack wasn’t derailed by the conditions. Representing Australasia, a combined team from Australia and New Zealand, Durack opened her Olympic career in grand fashion, setting a world record of 1:19.8 during qualifying heats of the 100 freestyle.” (Swimming World Magazine)
Durack won the gold medal with a time of 1:22.2, besting Wylie by more than three seconds.
Australian Swimmer Mina Wylie Made Silver History
Wilhelmina (Mina) Wylie (1891-1984) made waves from age five when she joined her family’s aquatic troupe. In her crowd-pleasing act, she swam underwater with her hands and ankles bound.
Her father, Henry Wylie, was a champion long-distance and underwater swimmer. In 1907 he built the popular Wylie’s Baths in Coogee where Mina later trained with close friend and rival Fanny Durack.
Mina and Fanny Durack were fierce competitors in the pool and very close friends out of the water. Both were coached by Henry Wylie and they raced in the New South Wales Swimming Championships in 1910 and 1911 with Mina winning every race and Fanny always a close second.
According to the Australian Dictionary of Biography, Wylie competed in the first New South Wales ladies’ championships in 1902. She came in second in the under-10 27-yards handicap. In the Summer 1912 Olympics, she won the silver medal in the 100-metres freestyle. Her rival and friend Fanny Durack, broke the world record in the heats, andwon the gold medal.
“The only other event for women was the 4 x 100-metres relay; both women offered to swim two legs each in order to compete but permission was refused.” (Australian Dictionary of Biography)
Durack outshone Wylie’s with her Olympic gold, but Wylie had a long career in her sport.
“Between 1906 and 1934 she won 115 State and national titles and held world records in freestyle, breast-stroke and backstroke. In some years she was outstanding in every event at the Australian championships and in 1922 won the New South Wales 880-yards title by an extraordinary 110 yards.” (Australian Dictionary of Biography)
Wylie retired from competition, but joined Pymble Ladie’s College in New South Wales, Australia in 1928 as head of their swimming program. The College built Australian’s first Olympic-sized swimming pool two years later.
Wylie coached many of the school’s swimmers to victories for 42 years. She retired in 1970 and was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1975.
Mina Wylie and Fanny Durack remained close friends for life, despite (or possibly because of) their intense rivalry.
Jennie Fletcher Made Solid Gold History
One of twelve children, Jennie Fletcher (1890-1968) was from Leicestershire, England. Born in the same year that Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland raced around the world in opposite directions without male escorts, it was a time of tremendous social upheaval with women embracing new freedoms. (see Bisland and Bly)
Despite having to squeeze practice time into twelve-hour workdays, Fletcher set a world record in 1905 in the 100-yard freestyle. In 1907 she broke her own record seven times for the 100 yard distance.
According to the British Newspaper Archives, she was selected for the 1908 Olympics, but the women’s swimming events were cancelled due to a shortage of participants.
But in the Summer 1912 Olympics, Fletcher was a favorite. Her future changed with the British women’s swim team achieving great success.
“On 19 July 1912 the Daily Mirror reported on the women’s team winning the 400 m comfortably by 12 yards, beating Germany into second place, with Austria coming in third. The article included a photograph of Bella Moore, Jennie Fletcher, Annie Spears and Irene Steer.”(BNA)
Individually, Fletcher came in third, taking the bronze medal in the race that was won by Australia’s Fanny Durack.
Trailblazers Paved Roads To Our Future
Looking back to look forward, we owe great debt to the people who defied social norms. Their sacrifices expanded our freedoms.
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Know The Past To Invent The Future
