Eight Olympic and Commonwealth Games gold medals won by legendary Australian swimmer and International Swimming and Sport Australia Hall of Famer Murray Rose will go under the hammer in Sydney in December in a landmark public auction.
Rose, who won a total of four Olympic gold medals in the pool in Melbourne in 1956 and Rome in 1960 and four Commonwealth Games gold medals in Perth in 1962, is one of the legends of Australian sport
It represents the most significant sale of Olympic gold medals to ever be offered publicly at auction in Australia.
GOLDEN LANE: Murray Rose and Ian Thorpe the first two swimmers to defend the Olympic 400m freestyle. Photo Courtesy: Rose Family Collection.
The distinguished Rose collection, to be auctioned by Smith & Singer on behalf of The Rose Family, will be offered individually in a sale of Important Jewels, Watches & Medals .
Rose’s Olympic gold medals from Melbourne (400 and 1500m freestyle and 4x200m freestyle relay) and Rome (400m freestyle) are expected to fetch between $AUS60,000 and $AUS80,000 each.
While his four Commonwealth Games gold medals all from Perth in 1962 (440 and 1650 yards freestyle and 4×110 and 4×220 yards freestyle) are expected to reach between $AUS30,000 and $AUS40,000.
At 17, Rose became the youngest triple gold Olympic medalist in history at the 1956 Games in Melbourne (joined by Ian Thorpe in 2000) and made history again in Rome at the 1960 Olympics by becoming the first man to defend the 400m freestyle (again joined by Thorpe – 2000 and 2004).
Rose emerged from the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne as a national hero who was inducted into The Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1985 as an Athlete Member for his contribution to the sport of swimming and was elevated to “Legend of Australian Sport” in 1999.
The blonde-haired University of Southern California graduate and his striking profile helped take him to Hollywood stardom, with a diet that included nuts, raw vegetables and servings of seaweed. Inevitably he became known as the ‘Seaweed Streak’.
Rose came to prominence at the 1955 Australian championships, winning the 220yds and 440yds freestyle and went on to win seven Australian championships (five individual and two relays) and set 15 world records (nine individual and two relays.
At the 1956 Melbourne Games, Rose won the first of his three gold medals in the 4x200m freestyle relay, an event which had been dominated by the US and Japanese teams since 1912, when an Australasia team of three Australians Cecily Healy, Les Boardman and Harold Hardwick and New Zealand’s Malcolm Champion won gold in world record time.
Photo Courtesy: Rose Family Collection.
Kevin O’Halloran led after the first 200m and John Devitt, Rose and Jon Henricks progressively extended the gap, winning in world record time of 8:23.6 seconds to beat the USA also in a new world record.
Rose went on to win the 400m in Olympic record time of 4:27.3 seconds and the 1500m in 17:58.9 seconds – the first swimmer in 36 years to win both individual events.
He then went to the United States after the Olympics and swam at USC but returned to Australia for the training camp prior to the 1960 Rome Olympics, where he defended his 400m title with a time of 4:18.3 seconds, won silver in the 1500m behind fellow Australian John Konrads, and bronze as part of the 4x100m medley relay.
Rose wanted to compete at the 1964 Tokyo Games but was unable to travel to Australia for the 1964 National Championships because of a movie contract, and the swimming bureaucracy refused his entry into the Olympic trials, despite his setting a world record in the 1500m.
His last international meet for Australia had been at the 1962 Perth British Empire and Commonwealth Games, and he won every event which he entered, adding the four gold medals to Australia’s tally in the 440yards and 1650yards freestyle snd the 4×110 yards and the world record breaking 4×220 yards freestyle alongside Bob Windle, Allan Wood and Peter Strahan.
That same year, he received the World Trophy from the Helms Foundation for outstanding performance in sport.
Rose’s last competition was on September 5, 1964, when he set a new half mile world record of 8:55.5 in the Canadian Nationals at Vancouver.
HOLLYWOOD LOOKS: Murray Rose Olympic champion and Hollywood star. Photo Courtesy: The Rose Family Collection.
He was one of the eight flag-bearers of the Olympic flag at the opening ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Rose, who is survived by wife Jodi and son Trevor, passed away from acute leukaemia in 2012. He was 73.
Geoffrey Smith, Chairman of Smith & Singer, in announcing the auction, said: “Australia’s reputation as a great swimming nation is founded on the achievements of many extraordinary men and women and an undisputed legend amongst those individuals is Murray Rose AM, regarded as the greatest male swimmer of his era.
“It was a ‘Golden Age’ of Australian swimming in the post Second World War period. Winning six Olympic medals, including four gold medals, four Commonwealth Games gold medals and breaking 15 world swimming records over the course of his swimming career, Smith & Singer are honoured to be entrusted to bring to auction all of Murray Rose’s Olympic and Commonwealth Games gold medals.”