By Keith Dunlap on SwimSwam
One of Australia’s swimming legends has died.
Linda McGill, a former Olympian and the first Australian to swim the English Channel, died on Wednesday at the age of 79 due to emphysema, a chronic lung condition.
McGill is best known for her open water swimming prowess, most notably making history for her country by swimming across the English Channel in 1965 in a time of 11 hours, 12 minutes.
Not known to be a pure distance freestyle specialist in her career, McGill competed in the 100 fly, 400 IM, 200 breast and as a member of a 4×100 medley relay team during the 1964 Tokyo Games, making her pursuit to cross the 35-kilometer English Channel even more ambitious.
Her time missed setting what would have been a women’s record back then by 11 minutes.
McGill swam the English Channel two more times in 1967, breaking the then women’s record with a time just under 10 hours on her third crossing.
McGill made that swim topless, getting permission from the Channel Swimming Association to do so after saying it would prevent the straps of her swimsuit from cutting into her shoulders.
McGill made other noteworthy open swims, including:
Swimming across Sydney Harbour in 1967. In 1968, she swam from Capri to Naples, Italy (29 km), across Lake Simone in Canada (24 km) and from Block Island to Rhode Island (32 km) in the U.S. McGill in 1976 became the first person to swim the 48.3 km around Hong Kong Island, achieving the feat in 17 hours, 6 minutes. That record stood until 2017, when Simon Holliday completed the same swim in 12 hours, 32 minutes. In 1977, McGill became the first person to swim from Saudi Arabia to Bahrain (29 km). In 1993, McGill became the first Australian to swim the 45.8 km around Manhattan Island in New York, doing so in 9 hours, 10 minutes and 55 seconds.According to the Australian National Maritime Museum, McGill also was noted for being suspended by the Amateur Swimming Union of Australia in 1965 for defying a ban on attending the Opening Ceremony of the 1964 Tokyo Games.
After being told by officials to stay at the Olympic Village and watch the ceremony on TV because she was set to compete within the first three days, McGill, Dawn Fraser, Marlene Cayman and Nan Duncan smuggled themselves onto buses.
Upon a search, McGill and Duncan were found and taken back to the Olympic Village. Undeterred, McGill went back to the stadium in the company of rowers and watched the ceremony from the stands. Fraser and Cayman, who weren’t found on the original bus search, ended up marching in the ceremony.
McGill was ultimately suspended from competing at age 19 for four years, prompting her to take up open water swimming. Fraser was suspended for 10 years, while Dayman and Duncan were each suspended three years.
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