Fresh-faced Konrads kids stole the summer of ‘58
SIXTY years ago fresh-faced teens “the Konrads Kids” stole summer, toppling swim records at championships at North Sydney.
Today in History
Don't miss out on the headlines from Today in History. Followed categories will be added to My News.
SIXTY years ago fresh-faced teens “the Konrads Kids” stole summer, toppling a succession of swim records at the NSW Championships at North Sydney pool.
Already displaying a collection of school competition trophies at their Greenacre home, John and Ilsa won a national following as they smashed seven records over five days in January 1958.
John, then 15, broke the world record for 800 yards freestyle, clocking 9:17.7, on January 11. Days earlier, on January 7, Ilsa at just 13became the second female swimmer in the world to break five minutes for 440 yards in a long-course pool with a time of 4:59.2.
On January 9 the crowd cheered the “13-year-old wonder girl” as she broke the world 880 yards record by 16.9 seconds, in a time of 10:17.7, which also broke the world 800 yards record by 13.2 seconds.
“Miss Konrads throughout her remarkable swim tonight was given no opposition by the European champion, Corrie Shimmel. She was 3 yds in front of Miss Shimmel at the 200 yds and 5 yds at the 300 yds, with the other contestants well behind,” sports writers enthused.
By January 20, John had claimed his sixth world record when he won the NSW 220 yards, freestyle championship in 2:4.8.
“The Konrads brother and sister are nice kids,” a magazine noted. “They’re level-headed, unspoilt — and very serious about swimming. Every morning they are out of bed by 5.30, ‘or earlier’,” says their mother.
By 6am they were training at Bankstown Olympic Pool, about 10 minutes’ cycle-ride from their home, finishing at 8am. By 4pm they were back at the pool.
Selected for the 1958 Empire Games in Cardiff, Wales, followed by the 1960 Rome Olympics, between January 1958 and February 1960, the Konrads Kids set 37 world records.
At Cardiff and Rome, they were the first brother-sister act ever to win gold medals. In Rome John claimed three, including gold in the 1500m freestyle, and Ilsa won silver in the 4x100m freestyle relay with Dawn Fraser, Lorraine Crapp and Alva Colquhoun.
As Australia marvelled at the youthful wonders, in the background their coach Don Talbot, who met them in 1953, was just 24. He had been moonlighting as a swim coach at Bankstown pool with Frank Guthrie while teaching at Revesby Primary School when 10-year old John went looking for a swim competition.
The Konrads were born in Riga, Latvia, John in May 1942 and Ilsa in March 1944. After German occupation of Latvia during World War II, followed by Soviet occupation, the Konrads family fled in August 1944. With their parents Janis, a dental technician, and Elza, a dentist, their paternal grandmother and elder sister Eve, John and Ilsa spent four years in Germany as their parents hoped to return home. When the Soviets remained in Latvia, the Konrads applied to migrate to the US in 1949.
Their application was refused because the family was too large, and they instead selected Australia, arriving in 1949 when they were first sent to a migrant camp at Greta near Maitland. Shortly after they were relocated to a camp at Uranquinty, near Wagga Wagga in southwestern NSW, at a former RAAF base provided with a 25m swimming pool. Worried the children could drown in water holes around the camp, their father taught them to swim.
As a regular at the pool, John was among several children who contracted polio from the water. Immediately recognising the symptoms, his mother used a wheelbarrow to take him to hospital, where he spent four weeks over Christmas. He then swam therapeutically to rebuild strength.
The family moved to Sydney in 1951, settling first at Pennant Hills, then moving to the Bankstown area where Ilsa insisted on joining John at training sessions with Talbot.
After winning his first national title in 1956, in the junior 440 yards freestyle, John was selected as a reserve for the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, where at 14 he was Australia’s youngest male Olympian.
In 1960 John accepted a scholarship to study business management at the University Of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles, a dream he had held since 1958. But his swim times slipped, resulting in disappointing results at the Tokyo Olympics.
John then went to work as a swim and fitness coach at a high-end country resort near Paris, where he met his Dutch wife. Returning to Australia,
he became vice-president of a cosmetics company. After competing at the 1962 Empire Games in Perth, Ilsa pursued a career in journalism.
Originally published as Fresh-faced Konrads kids stole the summer of ‘58
Gallipoli to D-Day: Aussie’s epic war story
George Dixon went ashore with the original Anzacs at Gallipoli, aged just 15 – and was shot. Three decades later he was fighting again, at history’s other most famous wartime landing.
Love story behind escape tragedy
An Australian murdered in the infamous wartime Great Escape died after swapping places with another man. And his story is still unfolding, 80 years on.