1939 - 2012

Four-time Olympic Gold medallist (Iain) Murray Rose AM learned to swim at Sydney’s eastern beaches and the Bondi Amateur Swimming Club.

Rose was born in the UK but moved to Australia with his family in 1940 after the outbreak of World War II. He attended Cranbrook school and developed his skills at nearby Redleaf harbour pool at Double Bay, where he was coached by Sam Herford who had been a champion in the pool and the surf.

Rose was 17 when he swam in his first Olympic Games in Melbourne in 1956, winning three Gold medals and becoming a national hero. Rose won three more medals at the Rome Olympics in 1960. By the time his career ended he had 6 Olympic medals - 4 Gold, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze - and held world records for the 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyle events, plus 4 Commonwealth gold medals in 1962. He was the first man to swim 1500m in less than 18 minutes and was inducted into the Swimming Hall of Fame in 1965, having set 15 world records.

Rose grew up following a vegetarian diet, which earned him the name of “Seaweed Streak”. His swimming style was innovative, emphasising strength in shoulders and back rather than arms and legs.

After the 1956 Olympics, he accepted a scholarship at the University of Southern California, obtaining a degree in Business and Communications. He also appeared in movies in the US. It was while filming ‘Ride the Wild Surf’ in 1964 that controversy ended his swimming career. Rose had completed trials for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics in the US, setting world records, but Australian officials refused him permission to swim in Tokyo - a bureaucratic decision that outraged the swimming world.

Rose went on to do sports commentating and marketing. In 2000, Rose was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for services to swimming and received the Australian Sports Medal.

In 2010 Rose led a team on a pilgrimage to Gallipoli and a 4.5 km swim from Europe to Asia across the Dardanelles. He continued to train regularly at Bondi.

He held a number of cause related board positions including for the Mary MacKillop Foundation and was a Patron of Rainbow Club Australia, a charity providing children with special needs the opportunity to explore their abilities through swimming activities.

Rose died in 2012 from leukaemia. Redleaf pool was renamed in his honour.

Courtesy Jodi Rose, Waverley Library Local Studies Collection and the State Library of New South Wales.