Cecil Healy -A Biography by John Devitt and Larry Writer

Healy remains Australia’s only Olympic Gold Medallist to die at war.

At the Stockholm Olympics in 1912, he was responsible for one of the greatest sporting gestures in the history of Australian sport.

The centenary of Cecil Healy’s death occured on August 29.

Cecil Healy was just 36 when he died in France in 1918, but he achieved plenty in a remarkable life. He was at the forefront of Australia’s first great era of swimming, the nation’s early Olympic experiences and the rise of the surf lifesaving movement. He was an evocative journalist and hard-working administrator who helped organise the famous visit of Duke Kahanamoku to Australia in 1915, an adventure that inspired generations of surfboard riders. At the Stockholm Games, Healy refused to swim in the 100-metres final unless the Duke, the favourite, was allowed to compete. The great Hawaiian had missed his semi-final after a misunderstanding over the starting time. Healy’s gesture cost him victory but earned him a place in sport’s pantheon of true champions. The contrast between his conduct and recent sporting controversies such as cricket’s ball-tampering affair is stark.