Moments of Melbourne, Part 14 - Friday, December 7th, 1956

While Dawn Fraser had become the female national sports icon of Australia, Murray Rose followed in her footsteps 24 hours later. On the last evening of competition at Melbourne's indoor pool, the 17 year old from Sydney shattered his opponents once more, winning the grueling 1500 meters freestyle to become the youngest sportsman until this day to win three golds at one single Olympics. Before, Rose had also won the 400 meters freestyle and had been a member of Australia's successfull 4 x 200 meters freestyle relay team (picture: The Herald Sun).

Three days earlier, Rose's duel with Japan's Tsuyoshi Yamanaka in the 400 meters final had marked one of the highlights of Melbourne. After Rose had won the race in the world record time of 4.27.3 minutes, edging out Yamanaka by three seconds, he told reporters that the two had met in the Olympic Village shortly before the competition: "I said to him: Tsuyoshi Ymanaka san, I am older than you. I am twelve days older than you and I want you always to respect your elders." Even after years, Rose used to tell this anecdote with a big smile on his face (picture: Olympic). In the 1500 meters, Yamanaka again came in second behind the Australian

Wit, grit and charisma have always been trademarks of Rose, who was born in Birmingham, England. His parents left the country after the beginning of World War II when Murray was still an infant and moved to Sydney. Rose learned to swim in an enclosed saltwater pool at Double Bay.

After the Melbourne Olympics, Rose moved to Los Angeles and studied at the University of Southern California. In 1960 at Rome, he took home another gold in the 1500 meters before concentrating on his career as an actor, TV sports commentator and marketing businessman. It was years after his sporting career when Rose gave up on a special habit he used during his swimming days: He was a strict vegetarian, which earned him the nickname "The Seewead Streak".

In 1994, Murray Rose returned to Sydney, where he died from leukaemia on April 15th, 2012 (picture: Daily Telegraph).

News of the day: In swimming, Lorraine Crapp of Australia wins the women's 400 meters freestyle, while American Patricia McCormick grabs another gold in women's platform diving +++ One day after the bloody match against the USSR, Hungary gets the gold in Water Polo +++ Italian cyclist Ercole Baldini comes in first in the road race, the team competition is won by France.

Moments of Melbourne, Part 13 - Thursday, December 6th

Australia's athlete of the century, as she was later voted for, made Melbourne her Olympics at the evening of Dexember 6th, 1956. On this night, Dawn Fraser grabbed her second gold of the Games with the home country's 4 x 100 meters freestyle relay. At this time, she already had the 100 meters freestyle title in her pocket, and one day later, she added a silver in the 400 meters freestyle, finishing behind teammate Lorraine Crapp (picture: enhancentertainment.com).

For the 18 year old girl who had grown up in the modest industrial Sydney suburb of Balmain, Melbourne was the starting point of one of the most successful and colourful Olympic careers. Dawn Fraser went on to win the 100 meters freestyle and the label of fastest female swimmer in the world two more time, at the 1960 Rome and the 1964 Tokyo Games. She swam 39 world records and in 1962 became the first woman to break the one minute barrier for the 100 meters at 59.9 seconds.

But far from becoming everybody's darling in Down Under, the outspoken Fraser was going to get into the center of a storm at Tokyo in 1964. She quarelled with Australian officials and team head coach Terrence Gathercole. After her gold medal win - maybe in s state of being a little tipsy - she stole an Olympic flag from a pole in the Garden of the Imperial Palace, and was arrested for one night. When officials suspended her for ten years in 1965, her career was virtually over. Nobody seemed to remember what Dawn had gone through in the months before Tokyo: In the spring of 1964, she had a horrific car accident in which her mother died and she was severely injured. It was a real wonder how she came back so successful in such a short time.

That Fraser was a natural born fighter had become clear in the years leading up to her Olympic debut in 1956. Dawn learned swimming at Elkington Park in a pool that later was named after her. At first she was coached by her cousin, before legendary Harry Gallagher took over. Gallagher convinced her father to let Dawn live and train with him. After some hesitating, Fraser senior agreed on Dawn's 18th birthday and sparked her unbelievable run at world class swimming. At first, he and Gallagher (who also advised Australia's 100 meters freestyle champion at the 1956 Games, Jon Henricks) had agreed on a six months trial. It was to become a span of seven higly successful years (pictures: Getty, Yourmemento).

News of the day: Australian swimmer David Theile wins the men's 100 meters backstroke, while Japan's Masaru Furukawa prevails in the 200 meters breaststroke +++ In men's gymnastics, the USSR dominates the team's all-around with member Viktor Choukarine winning gold in the individual all-around. The Russians also win five of six apparatus events. Notable exceptions: German Helmut Bantz shares gold in the vault with Russia's Valentin Muratov and Japan's Takashi Ono grabs gold at the high bar +++ Russia also rules greco-roman wrestling winning five gold medals, while Finland gains two titles +++ France's Michel Rousseau wins the track cycling sprint, Italian Leandro Faggin the 1 K time trial and Australia the tandem competition +++ India's hockey team beats Pakistan 1-0 to win another field hockey gold.

Franziska van Almsick - The Unfulfilled Dream, Part 3

Some of the greatest athletes of the world have tried in vain to win an Olympic gold medal. We portray them in this series.

The name of her homepage says it all: Franzi - to Germans it's as simple as that. Even at age 38, Franziska van Almsick is called by and famous for her teenage nickname. It has become a household brandmark all over the country, in TV spots and the yellow press. But "Franzi" means business: When she criticizes Germany's swimmers as a TV expert or works as a fundraiser for the national athletes help network Deutsche Sporthilfe, there is nothing sweetheart about the woman, who - as a teenage girl - became the country's first post-unfication sports icon.

Still, one dark spot remains in van Almsick's career: She never won an Olympic gold.

When van Almsick (picture: Augsburger Allgemeine), one last product of the GDR's youth sports development program, burst onto the international swimming scene in 1992, she was just 14 years of age. On the early evening of July 27th, she stood on the starting block for the finals of the 200 meters freestyle at the Barcelona Olympics, having qualified in the fastest time. The German media were already nuts about their new darling from Berlin after she had taken bronze in the 100 meters 24 hours before. There was a real chance that the little girl could take it all.

But it was not to be. Van Almsick swam ahead of the pack for almost 180 meters, but on the home stretch, she zigzagged a little through the pool, perhaps due to a lack of experience. In lane five, American Nicole Haislett sneaked by the German wunderkind and beat van Almsick by one tenth of a second.

Nobody would have expected that this was going to be the closest van Almsick would ever get to an Olympic gold. What followed was a career of high drama with a lot of titles, records and profits from commercials, but no Olympic gold.

After becoming world champion and world record holder at Rome in 1994, van Almsick was again considered a heavy favourite for the 1996 Atlanta Games. But again, she could not stand the pressure in her best event, losing the 200 meters to Costa Rica's Claudia Poll, who was of German descent.

Things got even harder for van Almsick four years later at Sydney. Out of shape and with visible overweight, she had no shot at a medal. A German tabloid called her "Franzi van Speck" and a "pig". She rebounded from the disaster with another world record at the 2002 European Championships in her hometown of Berlin, but finished only fifth in the 200 meters freestyle at the 2004 Athens Games. When she retired afterwards, she had collected ten Olympic medals - four silvers, six bronzes, no gold.

When asked about that missing gold in August 2016, the now mother of two had no regrets: "For my personality, it was very good not to have achieved something in life.  I am happy and thankful for the life I live, I have two healthy kids, a wonderful family, I live humble - and I surely do this because I did not fulfil my biggest dream in life." (picture: dpa)

Anthony Nesty - The One and Only, Pt. 3

Some countries have won just one single gold medal in their Olympic history. We portray them in our series "The One and Only". One of them: Suriname. 

One 50 meters pool, ten 25 meters pools - this was all Suriname's swimmers had back in 1988. Certainly not the training facilities for an Olympic champion. That is one reason why the only gold medal winner coming from former Dutch Guayana was a typical breed of the United States' high school and college sport system (picture: extratime.uol.com).

Anthony Nesty was born in Trinidad in 1967. When he was seven years old, his family emigrated to Suriname, with little Anthony learning to swim at the age of five in the Carribean sea. His career did not really started off before he went to The Bolles School in Jacksonville in 1985 and later came to the University of Florida.

When he arrived at Seoul for the 1988 Olympics, he was not really unknown any more, having won the Pan-American Games title in the 100 meters butterfly in Indianapolis the year before. Nesty was a sure bet for a place in the final in Seoul on September 21st, 1988. But the center stage was expected to belong to superstars Matt Biondi from the U.S.A. and West Germany's Michael Groß.

But then Nesty stole the show - the same way and even more impressive than Australian Duncan Armstorng had done two days before, defeating Biondi and Groß in the 200 meters freestyle in a new world record time. In the 100 meters butterfly, Nesty came from behind and clocked an Olympic record of 53.00, edging out Biondi by one hundredth of a second. Great Britain's Andrew Jameson took the bronze (53.30), while "Albatros" Groß finished a disappointing fifth (53.44).

Nesty's triumph was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for his rouhgly 380,000 countrymen. Back home, they named aircrafts and stadiums after their new national hero. Suriname even put Nesty's picture on a coin (picture: numitsa.com). The man who made the least fuss about his triumph, was Nesty himself. ''After the prelims,'' he said, ''I knew I had a chance to win the race. I knew I was going to be in the top three.'' At the end of the day, it was his better gliding to the wall that had ensured his victory over Biondi.

In the following years, Nesty proved that he was by no means a one hit wonder. He won the Godwill Games in Seattle in 1990 and became a world champions the following year in Perth. At the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Nesty finished third behind winner Pablo Morales, the men who had kept the 100 yards butterfly prep school record at Bolles until 1987. Then, this mark was broken by a young man who was going to become Olympic Champion one year later: Anthony Nesty.

Suriname's only gold medalist ever is an assistant head coach with the Florida Gators' swimming team today (picture: radio10.sr).