Paris Olympics 2024: National treasure Dawn Fraser chats to Matthew Johns on the Matty and the Missile podcast
The national treasure that is Dawn Fraser confides many things in a special chat with Matty Johns as she prepares to cheer on our swimmers from the stands in Paris. Listen to the full podcast here.
So much has happened since Dawn Fraser made a name for herself at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games.
JFK. The first Moon landing. AIDS and Amazon. Google and 9/11. The iphone. Bin Laden. COVID …
She’s 87 come September, Dawn Fraser, officially a National Treasure, and as John Singleton, 82, says: “Mum and I forget we are matured now.”
John ‘Singo’ Singleton calls his lifelong mate Dawnie and/or Mum.
“Nothing will be fun over there if my Dawnie does too much,” he says. “R & R is vital. We’re not 20 or 30, not even 60 anymore.”
Singo being Singo, he’s giving us instructions on how to use Australia’s three-time and greatest Olympian as part of the News Corp podcast Matty and the Missile, as in Matty Johns and James Magnussen.
It’s the day of the Opening Ceremony and we’re sitting at this flash hotel in The Ave des Champs-Elysees with Matty knocking over the first edition.
Dawn, she’s looking fresh as a daisy and confides many things from the medal chances of her Goddaughter Lani Pallister to overcoming nerves and understanding greatness, plus her relationships with Sir Donald Bradman and, yes, Singo.
“Lani has turned the corner,” says Dawnie. “She’s mentally fit now and ready to excel.
“Being the youngest of eight I was brought up with two brothers, a tomboy, and I’d play football with them and ride bikes with them and compete for everything. So that’s where my determination came from.
“I wanted to be as good as the boys.”
Sure, she suffered nerves but soon learned to think about her opposition and all the fears early, well before race day, and by the time the swimmers arrived at the starting blocks in her mind there’d be Dawn Fraser, the black line she had to swim down, and nothing else.
What about this: the first three of Australia’s National Treasures were the racehorse Phar Lap, the cricketer Don Bradman and Dawnie.
Phar Lap died in the thirties but in the 1950s The Don and Dawn Fraser both lived in Adelaide.
“He’d invite me around for afternoon tea and talk about his achievements,” says the eight-time Olympic medallist. “At first I barely knew who he was and people would say, ‘Where have to been?’ and I’d say, ‘Having afternoon tea with Sir Donald and Lady Bradman.’
“He was just an ordinary man. He was the greatest cricketer in the world but he was an ordinary man to sit down and talk to.”
In the Podcast Matty asks Dawn about the pub she ran in her then blue-collar inner-western Sydney suburb of Balmain, and she says how she had all the footballers there, the rowers and water polo players.
And in all those years at the pub there was only ever one fight, two brothers arguing over who paid for the beers? Dawn gave them some boxing gloves, marched them over to the corner and said she’d pay the shout for whoever won.
“Brothers do tend to fight,” said Matty Johns, knowingly. Then he said: “And what about Singo?”
“How can you mention that man’s name and not say I love him dearly,” she says.
“He’s one of the best friends I’ve ever had.
“You know, what he’s done for me throughout my life … I can’t believe it.
“I’ve just gotta say, ‘Thank you Singo for what you’ve done – I love you.’”
Matty finishes today’s Podcast by recalling a handwritten letter she had sent him on the eve of the 1997 ARL Grand Final where his Newcastle Knights went on to beat the Manly Sea Eagles.
“I’m not going to say exactly what you wrote Dawnie,” he says, “but it’d be fair to say you’re not a Manly fan.”
Dawn Fraser just sat there, smiling, a lady for all seasons.
Make sure you watch out for Matty and the Missile PODCAST every day of the Paris Olympic Games.
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