Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the condolence motion for Murray Rose, a legend of Australian swimming and somebody who will be sorely missed. Born in Birmingham in England in 1939, Murray Rose took up swimming at the age of five. He went on to study in the United States at the University of Southern California and then had wonderful success in the pool. He held 15 world records, including three Olympic gold medals at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne when he was aged just 17: the 400-metre freestyle, the 1,500-metre freestyle and the four-by-200-metre relay. He went on to win a gold at the 1960 Rome Olympics as well as a silver and a bronze. He won his gold for the 400-metre freestyle and the silver for the 1,500, in which he came second behind John Konrads. He actually would have won more Olympic gold medals—at Tokyo in 1964—had he not missed the swimming trials. He did not qualify because he was undertaking some engagements in the movie industry, which I will speak a little bit about in a moment.

He died after a brave fight against leukaemia at the age of 73. He was described by the head coach of the United States swim team at Rome—Gus Stager, of the University of Michigan—as 'the greatest swimmer who ever lived, greater even than Johnny Weissmuller', whom we all remember as the original Tarzan. But he was not just a swimmer. He was not just a role model. He was also a TV personality. He studied drama and television and had a couple of Hollywood roles, starring in the 1964 movie Ride the Wild Surfwith two people I do not really know, but am told many of my colleagues know about, Tab Hunter and Barbara Eden.

See this speech in context