Jan Andrew recalls swimming at the 1960 Olympics

Transcript of interview

When I went to Rome we didn't have coaches that travelled with us. We just had a team manager. We had no goggles, no swimming caps. And there was no psychologists, or physios or masseuses. It was pretty basic sort of stuff, but still very enjoyable. I won a bronze medal for the 100-metres butterfly, and we won a silver medal - I say 'we' because there was four of us - in the medley relay. I did the butterfly leg and Dawn Fraser did the freestyle leg.

And I guess, you know, with the experience I had in those early days, which were pretty hard training days, yes, I can pass on my expertise, which is great. I have been to a lot of schools, mainly private schools, and I've given a lot of talks at the school I'm presently coaching at, which is a girls' private school in North Sydney. The children I speak to are quite young, but, you know, as we go along they learn that I did compete in the Olympics and they're very impressed and we go from there. I take a very casual approach with them because most of the kids I teach aren't Olympic standard - they're just swimmers. And I try and instil that swimming is supposed to be enjoyable - it's not a chore and it's for a safety reason when they, you know, if they're good swimmers and they're strong swimmers, if they want to go to the surf or they want to continue swimming later on, you know, they can enjoy it.