Violet Walrond

Violet Ethel Mary Walrond (27 February 1905 – 17 December 1996) was a New Zealand swimmer, who represented New Zealand at the 1920 Summer Olympics at Antwerp when only 15. In the 100 metre freestyle race she came 5th, and in the 300 metre freestyle race she came 7th (although New Zealand newspapers said she was 6th, and some publications said she did not start due to illness). She used the "crawl" style. This is the only Olympics to have a 300 metres women's freestyle race; in 1924 it became the 400 metres freestyle like the men's race. Her father Cecil 'Tui' Walrond (an excellent swimmer, who had received a Royal Humane Society award for rescuing 11 people from drowning) accompanied her as her chaperone and unofficial team trainer. Violet and her younger sister Edna retired from competitive swimming in 1923. Violet was 18, and Joseph Romanos was told by Violet that they retired on orders from their father, as "he felt that we were too much in the public eye". He also forbade them from cutting their long hair short. Violet would have been a likely selection for the 1924 Olympics.

Violet was born in Auckland in 1905. She married Harold Robb in 1933, and died in 1996 aged 91, in Papakura, Auckland.

External links

* [http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/photo/our-first-female-olympian Photo and article]
* [http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/photo/violet-walrond-1920-olympics Photo in group at 1920 Olympics]

References

* [http://www.olympic.org.nz/Athletes/AthleteProfile.aspx?Print=&ContactID=867&id=3774 Page at New Zealand Olympic Committee website]
*"Our Olympic Century" by Joseph Romanos pages 26-27 (2008, Trio Books, Wellington) ISBN 9780958283989
*"New Zealand Sporting Legends: 27 Pre-War Sporting Heroes" by Neville McMillan pages 139-146 (1993, Moa Beckett, Auckland) ISBN 1-96958-013-1