Turn for Glory

Australia's national swimming championships last week wound up a season that has left the record books in tatters. In seven weeks of competition, from the big New South Wales state meet to the nationals in Melbourne, Aussie youngsters had splashed to 31 new world marks. The incredible Konrads kids--Ilsa, 13, and John, 15 (TIME, Jan. 20)--accounted for 16 all by themselves. Awed Americans are beginning to wonder whether down-under champions are just born swimming in full career.

The Konradses (and just about every other competitor) can testify to the contrary. The pleasures of sun and sand on Australia's splendid beaches are among the first things that aspiring swimmers learn to forgo. The surf is too tiring; besides, there is no time for such fun. Nor is there time for movies, dances and other teen-age pastimes. All winter, the Konradses spend their spare moments at a wearing routine of bodybuilding exercises. All summer, they swim and swim and swim some more--always in pools, always under the critical eye of young (24) Coach Don Talbot.

A crew-cut teetotaler who grew up on the outskirts of Sydney, Talbot was a fair swimmer himself by the time he went to teachers college at Wagga Wagga. Now Talbot, who used to double as a grammar-school teacher, teaches swimming exclusively ($12 for ten 15-minute lessons with a beginner, $24 for six months with a competitor). His swimmers are his first concern. Says he, "You've got to really get close to them. You must be an adviser, friend and wailing wall." Coach Talbot goes to the lengths of prescribing intricate diets (e.g., wheat germ, lamb's fry and 15 vitamin pills a day), which his charges follow rigidly.

Some Aussie coaches go to other extremes. Talbot's own teacher, Frank Guthrie, saw to it that Olympic Champ Lorraine Crapp, 19, got hormone injections to delay her menses before the women's 440-yd. final in Melbourne last week. Her arm aching from the injections, Lorraine finished fourth.

But for Don Talbot, everything worked. He convinced Ilsa Konrads that she would win the 880-yd. title, and though she was suffering from such a bad cold that every breath caused pain in her chest, she won in record time (10:16.2). He told John just how fast to swim each lap of both the 440 and the 1650, and saw John follow orders so closely that the youngster broke six world records on the way to winning both races. In the 1,650-yd. swim, John kicked along so well that he cracked four records before he finished the grind.

"I doubt that any of the other coaches could have done what Talbot has done," says one of Talbot's colleagues. "We shot our bolts producing an Olympic swimming team. Talbot was a nobody in those days. So he put all his enthusiasm and zeal into making champions of the Konradses. Now it's Talbot's turn for glory."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.