Won NZ’s first Olympic medal in the pool
Swimming great
THERE have been few more influential figures in New Zealand swimming than Jean Hurring.
A pioneer in the water, she died in Auckland on August 8, aged 89.
Hurring (nee Stewart) won New Zealand’s first Olympic medal in the pool — a bronze in the 100m backstroke at the 1952 Helsinki Games.
It was New Zealand’s only Olympic swimming medal until 1988 and remains the only one won by a Kiwi woman.
The performance was the peak of a career that also included two Empire Games medals and 12 New Zealand titles.
Her legacy extended beyond the competitive side of swimming, later making a huge contribution to teaching children to swim.
Swimming New Zealand president Dave Gerrard called Hurring an ‘‘outstanding ambassador’’ of the sport.
‘‘Jean has remained an inspiration to all female athletes, but swimmers in particular,’’ he said.
‘‘Jean Hurring’s swimming legacy is immeasurable.
‘‘Her standing as an Olympic medallist and her contribution to water safety, teaching countless children to swim, stamps Jean as one of our finest.’’
Hurring was born into a family of swimmers in Dunedin on December 23, 1930.
Her mother, Mary, had been Otago’s first woman representative at a national championships and her two sisters were junior national champions.
While initially reluctant to follow, she began to take swimming seriously while at Otago Girls’ High School.
There she would train at Dunedin’s tepid baths at lunchtime.
New Zealand did not have a swim coach at the time, but she was mentored by ‘‘enthusiast’’ Bill Wallace.
His interest in horse racing provided the grounds for her beginning interval training, while she developed a pulley system in her bedroom to use as swimspecific weight training.
After leaving school, she began at training college, following her passion for painting to qualify as an art teacher.
She attended the 1950 Empire Games in Auckland, winning silver in the 110 yards backstroke.
The Olympics followed two years later, joining future husband Lincoln Hurring and long jump gold medallist Yvette Corlett (nee Williams) as the Dunedin members of the team.
She roomed with Corlett, as the only two women in the New Zealand team.
After qualifying fourth for the
100m backstroke final, she pulled out a time of 1min 15.8sec in the final to claim bronze in a tense finish.
Dutch swimmer Johanna de Korte appeared to have touched the wall at the same time, but after deliberating, the judges awarded the medal to Hurring.
In 1954, she claimed another Empire Games medal, this time a bronze in the 110 yards backstroke in Vancouver.
She attended the Melbourne 1956 Olympics, but did not make the final.
From there she retired, while Lincoln took a scholarship at the University of Iowa to swim and study for an economics degree in 1957.
Jean decided to follow him, sneaking out of a window in her parents’ home in Dunedin, catching a boat to the United States, and marrying while there.
They returned to Auckland in 1960, where they raised children Gary and Kim.
Gary would go on to be a Commonwealth Games medallist in the pool himself.
Meanwhile, after a false start at a desk job and as a teacher, Jean began a learntoswim school with Lincoln.
Alongside teaching countless New Zealand children to swim, their own kids developed into handy swimmers, Gary winning gold at the 1978 Commonwealth Games and silver at the world championships.
Jean and Lincoln were both inducted to the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame in 1990. Lincoln died three years later.
— Jeff Cheshire