| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Alva Merlin Colquhoun | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| National team |  Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1942-02-28) 28 February 1942 (age 82) Brisbane, Queensland | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 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, born 28 February 1942) is an Australian former 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. 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, Colquhuon combined with Dawn Fraser, Lorraine Crapp and Sandra Morgan to win the 110-yard freestyle. 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. 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 Colquhuon volunteered that the dispute was resolved. However, she was replaced by Andrew in the final.
She was married with two children and resided in Baddaginnie, Victoria.
See also
- List of Olympic medalists in swimming (women)
- World record progression 4 × 100 metres freestyle relay
Notes
- ^ "Our super-star swimmer". UnitingAgeWell.org. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
Alva Wyatt ... forever remembered in the halls of sporting fame as swimming legend Alva Merlin Colquhoun
- Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Alva Colquhoun". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 3 December 2016.
Full name: Alva Merlin Colquhoun
- Olympic Swimmer has Eastern Air, The Age, (Friday, 23 September 1960), p. 15.
References
- Andrews, Malcolm (2000). Australia at the Olympic Games. Sydney, New South Wales: ABC Books. pp. 97–98. ISBN 0-7333-0884-8.
External links
- Alva Colquhoun Wyatt at the Australian Olympic Committee
- Alva Colquhoun at World Aquatics
- Alva Colquhoun at Olympics.com
- Alva Colquhoun at Olympedia (archive)
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- 1942 births
- Living people
- 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 medallists in swimming
- Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Australia
- Commonwealth Games silver medallists for Australia
- Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for Australia
- Medallists at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games
- Sportswomen from Queensland
- 20th-century Australian sportswomen
- Australian swimming biography stubs
- Australian Olympic medalist stubs