Australian athlete, Wilhelmina “Mina” Wylie 130th Birthday

Australian athlete, Wilhelmina Wylie is the first Australian woman to win a silver medal in Olympic swimming.

Wilhelmina “Mina” Wylie, was born on 27 June, 1891, in Sydney, Australia, as the second child of Australasian distance-diving champion, Henry Wylie. 

Wylie grew up in South Coogee, Sydney, where her father Henry Wylie, built Wylie's Baths, in 1907. The Baths are the oldest surviving communal sea baths in Australia.

Her swimming achievements began much earlier than most. Wylie joined her father and brothers, in successfully swimming with her hands and feet tied, at only five years old! She placed second, in her first conventional swim meet, before turning 10. She continued to train rigorously throughout her youth, at Wylie’s Baths. 

The next year, Wylie broke the world record, in the 100-yard freestyle event. She set her sights, on the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, which was the first to hold a women’s swimming event. 

But Wylie’s aims were complicated, by an outdated rule of the New South Wales Ladies’ Amateur Swimming Association, that prohibited women from competing with men. Public uproar ensued, until restrictions loosened, allowing Wylie to dive headfirst into Olympic history, as a silver-medal 100-meter freestyle champion.    

By the time she hung up her competitive swimming cap, in 1934, Wylie held 115 state and national titles, complemented by freestyle, breaststroke, and backstroke world records. In honor of her lifetime achievements, the International Swimming Hall of Fame, inducted Wylie into its ranks, in 1975, and today, a sculpture in her likeness inspires swimmers at Wylie’s Baths.