Pat Norton

Australian competitive swimmer Pat Norton joined the Bondi swimming club at a young age. When she was 15-years-old Norton had become the national junior and freestyle champion in the 100 metres. A year later she had been selected as part of the Australian swimming team for the 1936 Berlin Olympics, making the 41-day journey to the Games by ship and train. Once in Berlin she swam in the 100 metres backstroke, reaching the semi-finals.

In 1938 Norton competed at the British Empire Games in her home city of Sydney where she won gold in the 110 yards backstroke. She also won silver in the 4×110 yards freestyle relay (with Evelyn de Lacy, Dorothy Green, and Margaret Rawson) and bronze in the 3×110 yards medley relay (with Evelyn de Lacy and Valerie George). After the Games she returned to her day job in a bank, in addition to helping to teach children how to swim. Norton later learnt how to fly and bought herself a Tiger Moth plane. With her friend Nan Watts, she flew around Australia and they became the first females to fly across the Bass Strait.