Courtesy of Isambard Productions Limited.
From material made available by Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision.
At just 15 years of age, Violet became the first woman to compete for New Zealand at the Olympic Games.
Young Violet competed in the 100 and 300 metre freestyle swimming events at Antwerp in 1920. Far from the controlled and comfortable conditions of today’s swimming competitions, these races took place in a fenced-off section of a murky, cold Belgian canal.
Not that Violet expected anything different. When she was chosen to compete for New Zealand she had no clear concept of what the Olympics were. “I imagined it would be a sort of swimming carnival,” she later recalled.
Preparing for the games was a challenge: Kiwi swimmers only trained in the antipodal summer—meaning they were not able to train for months prior to their departure. The journey from New Zealand to Europe was no help: it took the New Zealand team—numbering only four—some nine weeks to complete the passage by ship.
With her father acting as chaperone and trainer, Violet reports long days of boredom once in Antwerp, as she was not allowed to leave the confines of her hotel. Nonetheless, she performed well, qualifying by taking third in her heat for the 100 metre race—one second faster than the then Olympic record. She took fifth place in the final.
After the games, Violent continued to swim with great success in New Zealand and hoped to compete in the 1924 Paris Olympiad alongside her sister, a champion diver. Their father, however, decided they were too much in the spotlight and ordered the girls to retire from competition .
Violent died at the age of 91 still holding the title of youngest New Zealand Olympian.
Violet Ethel Mary Robb nee Walrond
Died 1996
Entry in the Book of Remembrance
