Did you know that in 1911 Australian men couldn’t control themselves around women, so women had to cover up? That’s what a lot of people claimed. Fanny Durack, Australia’s first female Olympic gold medal winner in swimming, had to fight that belief in order to be allowed to swim in the 1912 Olympic Games.

It seemed like everyone was against Fanny and her good friend and rival, Mina Wylie going to the Games – the Australian Olympic selectors who said that they had enough competitors already and couldn’t afford to send more (a shame they were all men), even the New South Wales Ladies Amateur Swimming Association who were in a lather about male onlookers getting overexcited and behaving badly.

But the people of Australia wanted Fanny to go and crowdfunded her trip to Stockholm. Lucky they did! Fanny won gold and Mina took silver. They were world champions.

Script and production by Nicole Steinke

Sound engineering and additional sound design by Judy Rapley

Fanny Durack read by Ainslie McGlynn

Male characters read by Jeremy Waters

Music and SFX from Epidemic Sound