{"id":619786,"date":"2025-08-01T17:53:29","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T00:53:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=619786"},"modified":"2025-08-01T22:40:58","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T05:40:58","slug":"tokyo-olympian-and-english-channel-conqueror-linda-mcgill-dies-on-the-gold-coast-at-79","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/tokyo-olympian-and-english-channel-conqueror-linda-mcgill-dies-on-the-gold-coast-at-79\/","title":{"rendered":"Tokyo Olympian and English Channel Conqueror Linda McGill Dies On the Gold Coast at 79"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tokyo Olympian and English Channel Conqueror Linda McGill Dies On the Gold Coast at 79<\/strong><\/p>\n

Australian Olympian, Commonwealth Games gold medalist and international marathon swimmer extraordinaire Linda McGill<\/strong> has died on the Queensland Gold Coast, at the age of 79. McGill passed away on Wednesday afternoon at Robina Hospital after a battle with emphysema, a chronic lung condition.<\/p>\n

Former teammate and Olympic legend Dawn Fraser<\/strong> remembered McGill as \u201ca good friend, loyal team member, an amazing human, champion swimmer in the pool and the open water\u201d who contributed so much in a life well lived.<\/p>\n

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COMMONWEALTH GAMES GOLD: Australia’s 4x100m medley relay, Perth Commonwealth Games 1962 (L-R) Pam Sergeant, Marguerite Ruygrok Dawn Fraser, Linda McGill. Photo Courtesy News Limited<\/p><\/div>\n

Fraser arranged for the Olympic Committee to present McGill\u2019s family with an Olympic flag, which they are thrilled about.<\/p>\n

McGill will be remembered as a larger-than-life achiever, once banned by Swimming Australia along with Fraser, before becoming the first Australian to swim the English Channel, doing so in 11 hours 12 minutes in 1965.<\/p>\n

The striking, broad-shouldered blonde decided to tour Britain and Europe with fellow Australian Olympic swimmers Ruth Everuss<\/strong> and Ilsa Konrads. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Until then, she had given no thought to swimming the Channel. \u201cI had no idea at all about Channel swimming until I decided to leave Australia after being banned,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was only when I reached London that such a swim was suggested. To be honest, I had never even heard of Channel swimming.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGill was remembered in England as a friendly, tall, blonde, blue-eyed London City barmaid with a daunting \u201cJunoesque\u201d build before her Channel swim.<\/p>\n

She left Dover in a launch with Konrads and Everuss, on the morning of August 6.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019ll be right, sport,\u201d was the parting shout of the banned Australian Olympic swimmer, as she set out to become the first Australian to swim the Channel the next day, on August 7, 1965.<\/p>\n

French schoolchildren thronged around as she stepped into the water, coated in lanolin, at 4 p.m. Diarrhea and sickness started three kilometers offshore. Her team administered hot kangaroo-tail soup from a pole which she could not touch for fear of disqualification.<\/p>\n

At one point McGill began to drink seawater, and recalled it tasted \u201cmarvelous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Six hours from Dover, Konrads \u2013 a gold medalist and world record holder in her own right – dived from the escort boat to keep McGill company but quit with seasickness after an hour.<\/p>\n

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Linda McGill of Australia with crowds of children watching her being \u2018greased up\u2019 by Peter Frayne, Channel Swimming Association Observer and Committee Member. Photo Courtesy English Channel Swimming Association.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t believe it,\u201d McGill gasped, managing a smile when she was helped ashore at Dover at 2:45 a.m. on August 7.<\/p>\n

In 1967, she again swam the Channel, twice, once topless. Disappointed with her first swim, she completed a follow-up swim and set a women\u2019s record of 9 hours 59 minutes, a time that came close to beating the then men\u2019s record of 9 hours 35 minutes.<\/p>\n

It would be the start of an extraordinary open water swimming career where she conquered the world of marathon swimming, and was presented with an MBE.<\/p>\n

McGill faced a variety of obstacles throughout her storied life before triumphs came in bunches, surviving her mother\u2019s tragic death, and coming back after that scandalous ban from the 1964 Tokyo Olympics after attending the Opening Ceremony \u2013 defying an edict that swimmers were to stay in the Village.<\/p>\n

She also survived a near-fatal car accident and a devastating divorce.<\/p>\n

Her autobiography,\u00a0Surviving the Sea of Life: The Triumphs and Tragedies of an Australian Olympian<\/a><\/em>, tells of her repeated victories against fate and roadblocks.<\/p>\n

McGill wrote about her world travels, meeting the rich and famous, sports stars, film stars, and politicians while dealing with her constant battle with skin cancer.<\/p>\n

Inducted into the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame as an Honour Swimmer, McGill would also become the first person to swim across Port Phillip Bay in Victoria, Australia when she swam 25 miles from Portarlington to Frankston. She was also\u00a0the first person to swim around Hong Kong Island, and from Townsville to Magnetic Island in Queensland.<\/p>\n

At the Commonwealth Games in Perth, she took home three medals: gold in the 400m medley relay, with Pam Sergeant, Marguerite Ruygrok <\/strong>and Fraser, silver in the 400m individual medley and bronze in the 100m butterfly.<\/p>\n

McGill also hit the headlines for swimming topless to reduce drag in the water.<\/p>\n

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Linda McGill becomes the first Australian to conquer the English Channel. Photo Courtesy English Channel Swimming Association<\/p><\/div>\n

On New Year\u2019s Day in 1968, she became the youngest Australian to become a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).<\/p>\n

McGill was also inducted into the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame in 1968 and was in the inaugural class of inductees into the Australian Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame in 2020.<\/p>\n

In her later years, McGill continued ocean swimming at Broadbeach while living on the Gold Coast. She auctioned off her entire collection of swimming medals and memorabilia to charity in 2007.<\/p>\n

In March 1965, McGill was one of four swimmers hit with the ASU ban, ridiculed as a \u201claughing stock\u201d around the world.<\/p>\n

The ban destroyed the Olympic prospects of Fraser, 27, banned for 10 years after winning her third 100m freestyle in a row; 200m breaststroke and medley swimmer McGill; 400m freestyler Nanette Duncan,<\/strong> 17, and 400m freestyle champion Marlene Dayman,<\/strong> 15, banned for three years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in Tokyo … and never heard a word about misbehaviour. It took … a lot of money and sacrifices to get Linda to the top. Now these officials have torn it all away in five minutes,\u201d her father, Burwood police sergeant Malcolm McGill, said at the time.<\/p>\n

Born on December 17, 1945, McGill grew up in the Sydney suburb of Abbotsford, on Hen and Chicken Bay.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe used to swim there as a kid,\u201d her father Malcolm explained the day after McGill\u2019s Channel swim. \u201cI helped her train four hours a day since she was 10 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n

Close friend George Christofides told the Gold Coast Bulletin<\/em> Linda McGill was an \u201camazing human\u201d with a \u201cgood soul.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Linda McGill\u2019s Swimming Career Highlights:<\/strong><\/p>\n

ENGLISH CHANNEL PHOTO GALLERY<\/a><\/p>\n