Alva Colquhoun
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Alva Merlin Colquhoun | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| National team |  Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 28 February 1942 Brisbane, Queensland | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 1 March 2025 (aged 83) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.69 m (5 ft 7 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 61 kg (134 lb) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Swimming | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Strokes | Freestyle | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Alva Merlin Colquhoun (married name Wyatt,[1] 28 February 1942 – 1 March 2025) was an Australian freestyle and butterfly swimmer of the 1950s, who won a silver medal in the 4×100-metre freestyle relay at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.[2] She is perhaps best known for resolving a dispute at a team meeting during the Rome Olympics.
Making her first appearance for Australia at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, Wales, Colquhoun combined with Dawn Fraser, Lorraine Crapp and Sandra Morgan to win the 4x110-yard freestyle relay. In the 110-yard freestyle, she was beaten into third place by her teammates Fraser and Crapp. In Rome, she anchored the team of Fraser, Crapp and Ilsa Konrads to a silver medal, trailing the American team by 2.4 seconds.[3] However, she was in the spotlight when during a team meeting, officials had ordered Fraser to swim the butterfly leg in the 4×100-metre medley relay preliminaries in place of the first-choice butterfly swimmer Jan Andrew, who was ordered to rest ahead of her individual event. Fraser refused, hitting Andrew with a pillow. It was only when Colquhoun volunteered that the dispute was resolved. However, she was replaced by Andrew in the final.
Colquhoun was married with two children and resided in Baddaginnie, Victoria.[1] She died on 1 March 2025, a day after her 83rd birthday.[4]
See also
[edit | edit source]- List of Olympic medalists in swimming (women)
- World record progression 4 × 100 metres freestyle relay
Notes
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- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Olympic Swimmer has Eastern Air, The Age, (Friday, 23 September 1960), p. 15.
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
References
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External links
[edit | edit source]- Alva Colquhoun Wyatt at the Australian Olympic CommitteeLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 29: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
- Alva Colquhoun at World AquaticsLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 29: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
- Alva Colquhoun at Olympics.comLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 29: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
- Alva Colquhoun at OlympediaLua error in Module:EditAtWikidata at line 29: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).Lua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 29: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
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- 1942 births
- 2025 deaths
- Swimmers from Brisbane
- Australian female butterfly swimmers
- Olympic swimmers for Australia
- Swimmers at the 1960 Summer Olympics
- Olympic silver medalists for Australia
- Australian female freestyle swimmers
- Medalists at the 1960 Summer Olympics
- Olympic silver medalists in swimming
- Swimmers at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games
- Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Australia
- Commonwealth Games swimmers for Australia
- Commonwealth Games gold medallists in swimming
- Commonwealth Games silver medallists for Australia
- Commonwealth Games silver medallists in swimming
- Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for Australia
- Commonwealth Games bronze medallists in swimming
- Medallists at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games
- Sportswomen from Queensland
- 20th-century Australian sportswomen
- Australian swimming biography stubs
- Australian Olympic medalist stubs