Death of swimming legend John Konrads

Australasian Leisure Management is saddened to learn of the death Olympic Gold medal swimmer John Konrads who passed away at the age of 78 on Sunday (25th April).

With his sister, Ilsa, he dominated the Australian swimming scene for a brief but brilliant time in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Both went on to represent Australia at the Olympic Games, John winning gold in the 1500m freestyle at the 1960 Rome Olympics.

Born in Latvia in 1942, Konrads arrived in Australia with his family 1949.

Settled to a former military camp at Uranquinty in rural western NSW, Konrads was taught to swim as a result of his father teach his children to swim to ensure their safety around the many watering holes and dams in the camp, and for the purposes of John’s therapy after suffering polio.

He was then coached by legendary swim coach Don Talbot (who died last year), a that time a teacher at the primary school they attended, and Assistant Coach to Frank Guthrie at the Bankstown Swimming Pool.

After moving to Sydney, every day, John and Ilsa cycled to the Bankstown pool before sunrise, for a two-hour training session, before returning home for breakfast and then attending school. After school, they would cycle back to the pool and repeat the training regimen.

With this training standing him in good stead, John was just 14 when selected as a reserve for the squad at the 1956 Melbourne Games. He competed in Rome four years later and in Tokyo in 1964. Like Ilsa, John suffered badly from nerves in international competition, which acted in some ways as a spur to further effort.

Konrads’ Olympic medal tally was one gold and two bronze, all of them won in Rome. When Konrads prepared for these Games, he held eight world records - from 200m to 1650yds. In 1959 he won every Australian freestyle title, in 1958 won the Japanese and French National Championships in 400m and 1500m, and later held the American NCAA titles for 500yds and 1650yds in 1963.

The Sport Australia Hall of Fame (SAHOF) advised “it was the early days that (Konrads) held the sporting world in thrall. John and Ilsa were at their record breaking best in 1958, the year of the Cardiff Empire and Commonwealth Games. John won three gold medals - the 440yds, 1650yds and the 4x220yds relay. This came after the pair dominated the national championships in January that year.

“13 year-old Ilsa had already broken two world records before 15 year-old John set the same 800m and half mile records for men two days later, then followed with 200m, furlough, 400m and quarter mile records during the next week.”

After competitive swimming, Konrads was Managing Director of the Australasian operations for personal care products company L’Oreal for more than a decade, was General Marketing Manager for Ansett in the lead up to airline deregulation and, in the first half of the 1990s was Chief Executive of the Melbourne Major Events Company where he was responsible for attracting many high profile events to the city including the F1 Grand Prix.

After 1996, he consulted in marketing, sports venue development and executive coaching and in 1999 he won the tender for managing the Cook+Phillip Park Aquatic and Fitness Centre, before management of the facility passed to the YMCA in 2007.

Commenting on John’s achievement, SAHOF, Chair John Bertrand AO stated “as a swimming sensation in the 1950s and 60s, John Konrads dominated the world swimming scene, breaking every freestyle world record between 200m -1500m by the time he was 15. His career tally of 26 individual world records is an incredible record. He was a proud Sport Australia Hall of Fame Member with an extravagant sense of humour who will leave a lasting legacy around the world.

Our condolences are with his sister Ilsa, the Konrads family and the many lives John touched within the swimming and broader communities.”

He was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame as an Athlete Member for his contribution to the sport of swimming in 1985.

Images: John Konrads in recent years (top) pictured with coach Don Talnot [left] and sister Ilsa [middle] during the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Wales in 1958 (below, credit: Australian Gallery of Sport and Olympic Museum).