8 February 2012
Melbourne Olympics Medal Winner Returns to the Pool at the Masters Games
Margaret Wilding competed for Great Britain at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics winning a Bronze Medal in the 100 meters
Backstroke. Last night she was back in the pool for the same event at the NZ Masters Games in Dunedin. Margaret is now
70 and this time she won Gold.
Margaret’s time at the Olympics was 1min 13secs, just a fifth of a second behind the equal first place getters. Margaret
points out that there was no electronic timing then, instead each swimmer had three time keepers and the official time
was taken as the average of those times.
Last night Margaret was intrigued to see swimmers warming up in the pool doing a few laps before their race.
“We never did that before a race we thought you’d tire yourself out, but times were very different then, we didn’t have
physios and when we travelled to Melbourne we travelled without coaches and without family members. What we did have
were chaperones! Plus the Games Village was segregated with the male and female quarters separated by high fences and
guarded by a soldier who kept sentry. What was amazing was the food. Great Britain had not long come out of food
rationing after the war and we had never seen so much food.”
Margaret was delighted with her Masters Games performance. She had given herself a goal of swimming the 100metres
Backstroke in 1min 40secs but bettered that with a time of 1 min 36secs. Tonight Margaret will swim in the 50m Freestyle
and tomorrow night in the 100m Individual Medley. In 1956 there were only 5 individual events that women could compete
in. Only men were allowed to compete in 1500m events and there were no relays.
Margaret spends 4 to 5 months living in New Zealand each year since buying a home in Wanaka in 2002. When she flys out
each year the journey is considerably faster than when she flew to the Olympics in 1956. “We left Britain on a Thursday
afternoon and didn’t arrive until the Monday afternoon.”
NZ MASTERS GAMES 2012
Dunedin
February 4 – 12
ENDS