Fanny Durack and Mina Wylie — the girls who swam for gold
Fierce Girls
ABC Australia
4.5 • 956 Ratings
🗓️ 2 April 2018
⏱️ 16 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Not so long ago girls weren't allowed to swim in the same pool as boys let alone compete in the Olympics. Girls weren't even taught how to swim freestyle! Best friends Fanny Durack and Mina Wylie weren't standing for it. They were great swimmers and wanted the chance to swim for Australia.
Sports fans agreed and took to the streets to protest until finally the rules were changed, and Fanny and Mina competed at the 1912 Olympic Games in Sweden.
Narrated by the fiercest of the fierce Turia Pitt.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the story of the girls who swam for gold, |
| 0:05.0 | This is the story of the girls who swam for gold, |
| 0:08.0 | Fanny Juraq and miner Wiley, |
| 0:11.0 | bred by the fiercest of the fierce, |
| 0:14.5 | Torria Pitt. |
| 0:16.5 | One, two, three, go! |
| 0:27.0 | Minor took a ginormous scalp of air and duct below the water. |
| 0:30.0 | Fanny pinched her nostrils and did the same. |
| 0:37.0 | They smiled at each other through the ripples, bubbles floating between their faces. It was their own swelling secret world. |
| 0:41.0 | Minor poked at a tongue. |
| 0:44.0 | Fanny lost it. |
| 0:45.0 | She swallowed a mouth full of water and sprang off the bottom of the pool. |
| 0:49.0 | Mina bobbed up too, giggling as the oxygen returned to her lungs. |
| 0:56.0 | No fair, Fanny said. You cheated. |
| 1:01.0 | Mina rolled into a back float, kicking her feet to splash her friend. |
| 1:06.0 | Relax, she said. |
| 1:08.0 | It's not like a breath-holding contest counts for anything. |
| 1:12.0 | Not like a proper swimming race. |
| 1:13.6 | A beetroot-faced woman in an ankle-length dress |
| 1:19.9 | appeared at the pool's edge. |
| 1:22.0 | She tapped her foot impatiently. appeared at the pool's edge. |
| 1:26.0 | She tapped her foot impatiently before calling out, Excuse me, Deers, my sons want to take a dip. |
... |
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