State Library of NSW
Collection Item
Mina Wylie, Coogee, 1913
Wilhelmina (Mina) Wylie, (1891-1984), and Fanny Durack were Australia's first two female Olympic swimming representatives. They competed in the Stockholm Olympics in 1912, where Durack won a gold medal and Wylie a silver. In 1911, 1922 and 1924 Wylie won every Australian and NSW swimming championship - freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke.
Wylie grew up in South Coogee, Sydney, where her father Henry Wylie built Wylie's Baths in 1907. Henry Wylie was himself a champion long distance and underwater swimmer. Wylie's Baths are the oldest surviving communal sea baths in Australia.