![\"Olympic](\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/e9c7a083bb9eddfa469eace6f249ffc8-700x500.jpeg\")
Dawn Fraser – Photo Courtesy: Dawn Fraser Collection<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cWow\u2026\u201d said the spritely 82-year-old Fraser, as she touched down in Queensland\u2019s Sunshine Coast airport after attending the Australian Swimmer of the Year Awards in Sydney, where she was presented with Swimming Australia Life Membership.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m available on those dates..and I would be honoured to attend the ISL Grand Final.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the whole concept is fantastic..great for these kids to earn some money for their amazing efforts in the pool\u2026it is putting swimming back on the international stage, where it should be.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor our swimmers to be earning good money and responding to what has been a fabulous professional league it is what they deserve.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is the beginning of a new era for our sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Dawn](\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Dawn-Fraser-700x500.jpg\")
Photo Courtesy: Dawn Fraser Collection<\/p><\/div>\n
Ironically it was Fraser who unwittingly at 12 years of age was a pioneer for the swimmers of today \u2013 banned by the Australian Swimming Union (ASU) for joining the Leichhardt\/Balmain League of Swimmers which was considered to be a professional body and also receiving two-shillings for competing in the Codocks Football Club Christmas picnic swimming races at aged eight.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll members over the age of 16 could swim for money \u2013 about 10 pounds for a big win,\u201d said Fraser, who wrote about it in her autobiography.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first joined the League I would swim for points\u2026and instead of receiving money we would choose a trophy on the presentation night to the value of our points and that was presented to us instead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI chose a mantelpiece clock for Mum and Pop with a big face and I won them a nice wireless, knives and forks and plates which were nice things for my parents and a reward for them.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs for the Christmas races, there were sack races, egg and spoon races and of course swimming races and all the kids were give two-shillings as a Christmas present at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n
But it landed young Dawnie in hot water and when she started to first make a name for herself, it was discovered that she had been a member of a professional body of swimmers and as a result she was officially banned by the ASU from taking part in amateur races with the Balmain Amateur Swimming Club for two years.<\/p>\n
Fraser had beaten another future Olympic champion Lorraine Crapp in a handicap 55-yards freestyle race at Granville Pool, when ASU started to ask questions about the budding champion from Balmain.<\/p>\n
\u201cApparently someone had found out that I had been a member of a professional body of swimmers and that I had taken two-shillings from Codocks for swimming in the Christmas races,\u201d said Fraser.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a result I had been officially banned by the ASU from taking part in amateur races for two years..and it was completely confusing to me\u2026all I wanted to do was swim.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had no idea what I had done wrong but it hurt me deeply because I felt excluded and singled out at a time when I desperately wanted to be included.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"DEL_0443\"](\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/DEL_0443-700x500.jpg\")
Janelle Elford, 1988 Olympic swimmer for Australia, and daughter Lani Pallister, World Junior Champion, share a joke with the legend Dawn Fraser – Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr, Swimming Australia<\/p><\/div>\n
Despite protestations and fronting the ASU with herb coach Ray \u201cChut\u2019 Miranda, Dawn served 18 months of the ban, leaving a sour taste in her mouth for officialdom and especially ASU president Bill Burge-Phillips.<\/p>\n
But the rest as they say is history, with Dawn Fraser going on to become the Greatest Olympic athlete of the Century\u2026and it is no wonder Konstantin Grigorishin wants to right the wrongs of the sport and invite Dawn to Mandalay Bay in December.<\/p>\n
\u201cDawn Fraser is a legend and I am going to invite her,\u201d Grigorishin told Swimming World<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cI really hope she can make it to Vegas because it would be fantastic for the whole sport and for our event.<\/p>\n \u201cI know her story and that\u2019s why I would like to invite her. I just love the way she was so disruptive. She took her fight to the water and to those in charge if she thought they were getting it wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n Dawn Fraser with Aussie Olympians Emma McKeon and Jack McLoughlin. Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr\/Swimming Australia<\/p><\/div>\n And the final word from Dawn.<\/p>\n \u201cFeel free to pass on my details,\u201d she said\u2026..\u201dVegas in December sounds like the pace to be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Australia\u2019s Olympic swimming legend Dawn Fraser said today she would gratefully accept Konstantin Grigorishin\u2019s kind invitation to attend the International Swimming League Grand Final in Las Vegas next month. Fraser<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7938,"featured_media":403700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[127,71150,72289,4673],"class_list":["post-403979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-world","tag-dawn-fraser","tag-international-swimming-league","tag-konstantin-grigorishin","tag-lorraine-crapp"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n![\"dawn-fraser-emma-mckeon-jack-mcloughlin-hancock-prospecting-swimmers-swimmer\"](\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Swimmers-Swimmer-700x500.jpg\")