Mina Wylie

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Mina Wylie in the swimming pool suit of the time (around 1913)

Wilhelmina "Mina" Wylie (born June 27, 1891 in North Sydney , New South Wales , † July 6, 1984 in Randwick ) was an Australian swimmer . She won a silver medal in 100 meter freestyle swimming during the 1912 Summer Olympics . She and her friend Fanny Durack won the first Olympic medals for Australia in women's swimming .

Life

Mina Wylie was the second of three children of Irish-born Henry Alexander Wylie, a house painter, and his wife Florence Ann, nee Beers. Henry Wylie was a long distance swimmer and scuba diver and won an Australasian competition in the sport in 1896 . Mina Wylie, who had two brothers, started swimming when she was five. She attended Caerleon College in Randwick as a student .

Mina Wylie did not marry and lived with her parents and one of her brothers in Coogee for a long time.

Sports

Fanny Durack (left) with Mina Wylie in Stockholm (1912)

As early as 1902, Mina Wylie took second place in a swimming competition. In 1907 her father built Wylie's Baths , a rock pool in Coogee , which is now on the Australian List of Historic Monuments. One reason for this construction was certainly that there were only limited access times to the men's swimming pools for women in Australia. At Wylie's Baths she trained with her friend Fanny Durack. In 1908, Mina Wylie set a world record in freestyle swimming over 100 yards.

Both swimmers planned to take part in the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm . Swimming competitions for women were first advertised as an Olympic discipline in 1912. The resistance of the national, Australian swimming federation against the participation of women in this competition had to be overcome first. After several successes in Australian swimming competitions in 1910/1911, both Mina Wylie and Fanny Durack were nominated for the Olympic swimming competition in 1912 in freestyle swimming. 27 participants had registered for the competition, including seven from England and four from Germany. In the final, Fanny Durack won the gold medal and Mina Wylie the silver medal. Fanny Durack completed the swim distance of 100 meters in a time of 1: 22.2 minutes and Wylie in 1: 25.4 minutes.

She could not win another Olympic medal because the 1916 Summer Olympic Games in Berlin were canceled due to the First World War . Although she took part in swimming competitions in the United States in 1918 . However, these did not have the rank of Olympic competitions.

Mina Wylie took part in numerous swimming competitions in Australia from 1906 to 1934 and won 115 titles in both freestyle and back and breaststroke .

From 1928 to 1970, Mina Wylie gave swimming lessons at Presbyterian Ladies College in Pymble .

Honors

In 1975 Mina Wylie was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame . A bronze sculpture of her by the sculptor Eileen Slarke stands at Rockpool Wylie's Baths in Coogee. She was the first woman to receive the RSSL Diploma Award from the Royal Life Saving Society of Australia (RSSLA). Randwick City Council has also put up a plaque in their honor. The Mina Wylie Crescent , a building complex in Gordon , a district of Canberra , is named after her.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Warwick Hirst: Wylie, Wilhelmina (Mina) (1891–1984) , on adb.anu.edu.au. Retrieved September 24, 2016
  2. ↑ a b c Mina Wylie (AUS) 1975 Honor Swimmer , on ishof.org. Retrieved September 27, 2016
  3. ↑ Mina Wylie , on sports-reference.com. Retrieved September 24, 2016
  4. ^ Wilhelmina 'Mina Wylie AM - Swimming . at www.sahoforg.au. Retrieved September 27, 2016
  5. ↑ a b Mina Wylie at Wylie's Baths , on swimsallyswim.blogspot.de. Retrieved September 27, 2016
personal data
SURNAME Wylie, Mina
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wylie, Wilhelmina
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian swimmer
DATE OF BIRTH June 27, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH North Sydney, New South Wales , Australia
DATE OF DEATH July 6, 1984
Place of death Randwick , New South Wales