John Konrads
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| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | John Konrads | ||||||||||||||||||
| National team |
 Australia
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| Born |
21 May 1942 Riga, Latvia |
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| Height | 1.79 m (5 ft 10 in) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 84 kg (185 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Swimming | ||||||||||||||||||
| Strokes | Freestyle | ||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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John Konrads (Latvian: Jānis Konrads; born 21 May 1942) is an Australian former freestyle swimmer of the 1950s and 1960s, who won the 1500 m freestyle at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. In his career, he set 26 individual world records, and after his swimming career ended, was the Australasian director of L'Oréal, as well as campaigning for the Sydney Olympics bid. Along with his sister Ilsa Konrads, who also set multiple world records, they were known as the Konrad Kids.
Born in Riga, Latvia, Konrads emigrated with his parents Janis and Elza, grandmother, elder sister Eve and younger sister Ilsa in August 1944, initially staying in Germany. This came after occupation of Latvia by German troops during the Second World War and then reoccupation by Soviet troops. Though living in Germany until 1949, their application to immigrate to the United States was refused on account of the large size of the family. Instead, Australia accepted them. They were first located at Greta migrants' camp near Maitland, New South Wales, and then they were relocated to a camp at Uranquinty, in mid-western New South Wales, at what had been a base for the Royal Australian Air Force. There his father Janis taught the children to swim, fearing that they could drown in the many watering holes and dams in the camp. After spending four weeks in hospital due to a case of polio, Konrads swam therapeutically to rebuild strength.
His father Janis secured a job in Sydney as a dentist, and the family settled first in Pennant Hills and then Bankstown. Elza enrolled in the University of Sydney's dentistry program, as her qualification from the University of Riga was not recognised, but withdrew due to the demands of raising three children. Konrads and his siblings attended Revesby Primary School, where one of the schoolteachers was Don Talbot. Talbot was an assistant to Frank Guthrie as the Bankstown Swimming Pool. Konrads joined the club in the 1953–1954 season, winning the junior 880yd freestyle. His first national title came in 1956, winning the junior 440yd freestyle. This led to Konrads being selected for the team to attend the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, although as a reserve he did not compete in any form.
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