Toy Myburgh was from the Marievale gold mine near Nigel in the Eastern Transvaal, and attended Springs High School. She swam in the mine swimming pool and was coached by her father at the Springs Olympians Swimming Club. In 1956 she was a member of the South African women's 4x100 freestyle relay team at the Melbourne Olympics that finished in third place, winning the bronze medal.

Natalie Ann Myburgh “Toy”

Born 15 May 1940 – passed away 21 January 2014

by Ron Gillespie

Toy grew up on the Marievale gold mine. She went to school in Nigel before moving to Springs Technical College to concentrate on shorthand typing and the English language.

The gold mines generally had excellent sports facilities and competed with one another in bowls, tennis, golf, swimming, etc. It was at one of the inter mine galas that Toy was noticed and was asked to try out for the Transvaal team in 1953 at 12 years old. (the rest is history). She competed in the Bloemfontein Currie Cup, and then the 1953-54 championships, winning both the 100 and 220 yards final – selected to represent South Africa at the Empire Games in Canada. Springbok at 13 years old, turned 14 before the trip and won a gold medal.

There are two factors that interact to form every personality. The first comprises those qualities that nature endows us with. They are the priceless gifts that in the wonderful process of life we receive without asking. Toy had the complete package, a determined mindset to finish whatever she started.

Nobody taught her to swim, nobody showed her how to stroke or kick, her freestyle was hers. Her father only became interested when she started winning at inter-mine galas.

1954 SA Champ 100 and 200. 1955 SA Champ 100 and 200. 1956 New SA record in 100 and 200, and won the 400. 1957 Eastern Transvaal started Toy as captain at the Currie Cup in Bulawayo. 1958 Currie Cup final SA Champ.

1960 New SA records in the 200 and 400 both long and short courses. I think at that stage she was the longest-serving Springbok.

I took her to Northern Rhodesia and she started swimming and did not lose a race anywhere; it was already decided she would captain the Rhodesian team to the Currie Cup in South Africa, and then she set her mind to compete in the Empire Games team representing her new found home in in the Rhodesian team. Not to be, swam in a gala at Chingola, middle lane won by a mile, one of the timekeepers extended a hand to help her out of the pool, but unfortunately jerked her out and displaced one of the disks in her back, rushed to hospital where she stayed for a week and that was the end of her swimming. It was years before she could swim properly.

There were very few professional swimming coaches during Toy’s early years of training, her father read many books on swimming and tried out different methods and to his credit succeeded to a great degree. He was lucky his daughter was endowed with the priceless gift of a determined mindset to finish successfully what she had started. The only pro coach we knew was Cecil Colwin who coached at the Hillbrow pool, the only heated pool in the country, and had the pick of the Transvaal swimmers who did well representing the country. He wrote a book in 1968, Toy is hardly mentioned in his book, which I found disappointing, he talks about her unofficial world record set in October 1956, and she conformed with all the international standards/ Unlike Dawn Fraser’s time.

When Toy arrived in Australia she was recognized as the world record holder, our South African officials screwed up badly, and did nothing to rectify the mistake.

The Australian team had been at a special training camp for six months before the Games, best trainers, food, doctors, everything, had to give

Toy Myburgh with Australian great Ilse Konrads (right) and Victoria Manly.

SWIMMING CHAMPION PASSES AWAY

A memorial service will be held for Olympian swimmer Toy Gillespie (née Myburgh) tomorrow, Friday, January 24, at the Premier Hotel. Gillespie passed away in the early hours of Tuesday morning, January 21 at Knysna Private Hospital after a losing battle with cancer.

Gillespie was not yet 14 years old when she was selected to represent South Africa at the Empire Games in Vancouver in 1954 and soon Natalie Anne 'Toy' Myburgh became a household name. Gillespie was the first woman to break the 60-second mark in the 100 yards and was a South African record holder in the 100m, 200m and 400m. She was part of the South African Spingbok swimming team which competed at the Olympic Games in Melbourne in 1956, the Empire Games in Whales in 1958, as well as the Olympic Games in Rome in 1960.

The former South African swimming sensation was at home with her husband Ron until Sunday afternoon, January 19, when her condition deteriorated to the extent that Hospice recommended she be taken to hospital.

"Our neighbours in Brenton-on-Sea have been absolutely exceptional and so supportive. And Dr Francois Bruwer and all the staff of Knysna Provincial Hospital, are fantastic. Thank you so much," said a bereaved Ron Gillespie. "My wife was always very modest and never spoke about her achievements."

Ron and Toy were married for 54 years and had for many years had their own successful swimming school for the communities of Springs, Delmas, and Devin, before moving to the Garden Route. They have two children, Dean and Nikki. The Gillespies have been a well-loved couple in the close-knit community of Brenton-on-Sea.

1960 Olympic South African Swimming team - Tich Mclachlan, manager Alex Bulley, Laura Ranwell and Aubrey Burer.

Laura was born in Johannesburg on December 13, 1941. She competed for Eastern Transvaal at the SA Swimming Championships in 1959 and 1960, finishing second in the 100 backstroke in both years. 

In 1960 she was selected to compete in the Rome Olympic Games. Although she was the least well-known of the three swimmers selected, she was the one who achieved the most at those Olympic Games.

The Springbok swim team at the 1960 Olympics had a surprise result. Laura Ranwell, who had been beaten at the Olympic trials in South Africa by Rhodesian Lyn Cooper, set an Olympic record in the heats of the 100m backstroke. In the final, she finished with a time tied for third place in the women's 100m backstroke, although judged to have finished 4th.

Admittedly she swam in the first heat, beating the world and Olympic record time set by Judy Grinham in 1956, but four other swimmers also beat that time in the rest of the heats. Rhodesians Lyn Cooper, who had beaten Laura at the Olympic trials, and Dottie Sutcliffe, also swam in the Olympic 100m backstroke, but both failed to progress to the final. Lyn Cooper again won the South African championships in 1961 and 1962, while Laura's name did not reappear in the local swimming press after 1960.

The silver medallist in that race was former South African Natalie Steward, who by then swimming for Great Britain.

Tich McLachlan finished 6th in the finals of both the 400m freestyle and 1500m freestyle.

Aubrey Burer finished 7th in the 100m freestyle final but did not progress from the heats of the 400m and 1500m freestyle events. 

The results of the women's 100m backstroke final were :

1956 Melbourne Olympic  Games bronze medal winners Susan Roberts, Jeanette Myburg, Natalie Myburgh, and Moira Abernethy, with manager/coach Alex Bulley. All four swimmers were coached in Johannesburg by Cecil Colwin.

Click here to see the results of that race.

• Jeanette Myburgh also swam in the semi-finals of the 100m freestyle, finishing 8th.
• Natalie Myburghmade finals of the 100m freestyle, finishing 8th, and swam the 400m freestyle but did not progress in that event.
• Moira Abernethy swam the 100m backstroke, finishing 6th in her heat.
• Sue is 7th in the semi-finals of the 100m freestyle, just ahead of Jeanette. In the 400m freestyle, she finished 4th in her heat.

As a schoolgirl, Susan Roberts was active in field hockey, tennis, lacrosse, and badminton, winning a Transvaal provincial junior title in the latter sport. It was swimming, however, where she excelled the most and she was selected to represent South Africa at the 1956 Summer Olympics after setting a national record in the 880-yard freestyle event while winning the South African title. 

Natalie Myburgh was a young teen prodigy, representing South Africa at the 1954 British Empire Games when she was not yet 14 years old. She was the first woman to better the 1-minute barrier for 100 yards freestyle, and would later set South African records in the 100, 200, and 400 metre freestyles. She was very modest about her achievements in later life. Myburgh died at Knysna Private Hospital after a battle against cancer.

Moira Abernethy - or Mo Lamont, as she was known for many years while a swimming coach in Johannesburg, is the mother of Springbok swimmers Moira "Little Mo" Lamont and Ann Lamont. Little Mo was a backstroker, while Ann excelled in middle-distance freestyle events.

Jeanette Myburgh was born on September 16, 1940. She was a Western Province swimmer who came second in the 100m freestyle behind Natalie Myburgh of Transvaal at the 1956 South African championships. In her heat she broke Joan Harrison's SA record by 1,1 seconds. Sue Roberts finished third and Joan Harrison 4th. 

Jennie Maakal was a swimmers from Pretoria who finished third in the women's 400m freestyle at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles - winning South Africa's first Olympic swimming medal. The race was won by American swimming legend Helen Madison with Lenore Kight taking the silver.

Her coach was Jimmy Green of Pretoria. Jenny had the following podium finishes at major championships: 3rd in the 1932 Olympics 400 metres Freestyle; 2nd in the 1934 British Empire Games 4×110 yards Freestyle Relay (with Kathleen Russell and the non-Olympians Enid Hayward and Molly Ryde). In the 1930 British Empire Games she finished fifth in the 400 yards freestyle.

To the victor the spoils, but to Jennie Maakal much of the glory. For in many respects her performances against the greatest woman star the swimming world had then produced, Miss Helen Madison, were among the best of the Team, and perhaps the best of any South African swimmer on record at that time. At any rate she caused South Africa's name to be placed in the first three for the first time in an Olympic swim­ming event.

As in the case of Joubert, she won a great deal of personal acclaim, and kudos for South Africa, measuring up to the best world's standard, which was particularly gratifying in view of the cloud which shrouded the selection of both of them. Neither was chosen without acrimony, and the controversies which sur­rounded their respective selections ended in both of them getting into the Team by private subscription. The prestige they gained for South Africa could only have been exceeded by their actually winning Olympic titles.

<>Miss Maakal did all that her most sanguine admirers in South Africa pleaded that she would do, and a great deal more, actually accomplishing the achievement of bettering an Olympic record without winning an event.

One person alone was responsible for the inclusion of Jennie Maakal in the Team, and that was Jimmy Green, who was then Superintendent of the Pretoria Municipal Swimming Baths, and a famous swimming coach. Jimmy Green was primarily respon­sible for having the finance necessary for Jenny's fare to Los Angeles being raised and he himself must have been well out of pocket by his magnificent gesture. But this South African coach (who, incidentally, is still coaching swimming in Johan­nesburg) , in advocating the claims of Jenny Maakal, maintained she was capable of certain times and stressed that she had a chance, but his claim was ridiculed in many quarters.

However, Jennie Maakal proved Jimmy Green more than correct, because not only did she improve on her South African times, but on two occasions she beat the world's record, and she was the first South African swimmer to have the South African flag raised in its honour at an Olympiad. It was a personal triumph for her, a personal triumph for Jimmy Green, her coach, and an invita­tion to those who opposed her selection to "eat their words".

It’s probably South Africa’s best-kept sporting secret, but our boxers have brought home the most Olympic medals; 18 in all, of which six were gold. In Antwerp in 1920, Clarence Walker won the country’s first gold medal in the bantamweight division. Four years later in Paris, Willie Smith took gold in the same division.

Lightweight Laurie Stevens and light heavyweight Dave Carstens took gold in 1932, and it was on the way back from Los Angeles to Cape Town that they demonstrated the ultimate Olympic spirit towards team-mate, bronze medallist Jenny Maakal.

Lappe: “Her team mates could see she was not happy and they said, ‘What’s wrong with you, I mean you did wonderfully well, what’s wrong?’ and she said, ‘Look, I don’t think it was really worth it. My mother had to take a bond and we’re going to lose our house.’ And the two boxers, Dave Carstens and Laurie Stevens, they had both at that stage contracts, - professional contracts - and they could start boxing for money. But they said, ‘We’re not going to do that. We’re going to have tournaments and all of that money will be for you to give to your mother until she’s paid her bond back.’”

Jennie Maakal

deur Christo Maakal  

Hier is iets wat ek ‘n paar jaar gelede oor Jennie Maakal geskryf het.  Sy is 'n tannie van my (my pa se suster) en het behalwe suksesse by die destydse Rykspele, ook in 1932 te Los Angeles 'n bronsmedalje in die 400m vryslag behaal.  Sy het ook in die finaal van die 100m vryslag geswem. 

Ek dink dat sy ook die laaste Suid-Afrikaanse vrou was wat voor WOll aan 'n item in die Olimpiese Spele deelgeneem het.  Die Suid-Afrikaanse Olimpiese Komitee het in 1936 besluit om geen vrouens in die span in te sluit nie!

Dis 'n tema wat ook sake vir Jennie Maakal bemoeilik het... Jennie se ouers (my oupa en ouma aan vaderskant) het vanaf Nederland na die ou Transvaal gekom, soos so baie ander Nederlanders in die tydperk voor en na die 2de Anglo-Boere-oorlog.  'n Nuwe land en 4 kinders het hul eie uitdagings gestel en net nadat my oupa 'n aanstelling by die Normaalkollege gekry het, het hy onverwags gesterf. 

Boonop het die Depressie aangebreek. My weduwee-ouma het 'n onderwyspos by die Oost-Eind Skool in Pretoria gehad, maar vrouens is maar swak betaal.  Om te oorleef en die kinders van die nodige te voorsien, het sy ook smiddae en saans taalonderrig aan die kinders van ambassade-personeel verskaf, waarskynlik in Frans, Nederlands en Duits.

In die 20's en dertiger jare was swem 'n gunsteling tydverdryf onder jong mense in Pretoria, met meisies soos Zus Engelenberg, Freddie van der Goes, Kathleen Russel, Mary Bedford en Rhoda Rennie wat uitgeblink het.  Die laaste 4 van hulle het in 1928 se Olimpiese Spele 'n bronsmedalje in die 4x100m vryslag aflos losgeswem. Daar was in alle geval by baie mense die gevoel dat vrouens nie by die moderne Olimpiese Spele moet deelneem nie.  In 1932 was Jennie Maakal deur die Swemvereniging genomineer om aan die spele deel te neem  -  dink sy was hulle enigste nominasie  -  maar die S A Olimpiese Komitee wou nie vir haar betaal nie.  As sy wou gaan, moes sy self betaal. 

My ouma moes 'n groot verband op hulle huis neem om die nodige fondse hiervoor te kry, wel wetend dat sy eintlik nie genoeg verdien om die terugbetalings te behartig nie. Soos reeds gesê het Jennie toe in twee finales geswem en in een daarvan derde gekom.

Terug in Suid-Afrika het twee ander boksers, Dave Carstens en Laurie Stevens wat beide goue medaljes verwerf het, hulle toetrede tot die professionele bokskryt uitgestel en eers in die Johannesburgse stadsaal 'n vertoning aangebied waarvan die toegangsgeld gebruik is om die verband op die Maakals se huis terug te betaal.  Dit het lank voor my geboorte gebeur, maar ek raak nou nog emosioneel oor hierdie goedhartige daad van ware kameraadskap.

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 Here is something I wrote about Jennie Maakal a few years ago. She is an aunt of mine (my father's sister) and besides successes at the then Reich Games, she also won a bronze medal in the 400m freestyle in Los Angeles in 1932. She also swam in the final of the 100m freestyle. I think that she was also the last South African woman to participate in an event in the Olympics before WWll. The South African Olympic Committee decided in 1936 not to include any women in the team! It's a theme that also complicated matters for Jennie Maakal... Jennie's parents (my paternal grandfather and grandmother) came from the Netherlands to the old Transvaal, like so many other Dutch people in the period before and after the 2nd Anglo-Boer War. A new country and 4 children presented their own challenges and just after my grandfather got an appointment at the Normal Teachers Training College, he died unexpectedly. In addition, the Depression had arrived. My widowed grandmother had a teaching position at the East End School in Pretoria, but women were poorly paid. In order to survive and provide the children with what they needed, she also provided language lessons to the children of embassy staff in the afternoons and evenings, probably in French, Dutch and German. In the 1920s and 30s, swimming was a favorite pastime among young people in Pretoria, with girls like Zus Engelenberg, Freddie van der Goes, Kathleen Russel, Mary Bedford and Rhoda Rennie excelling. The last 4 of them swam a bronze medal in the 4x100m freestyle relay at the 1928 Olympic Games. In any case, there was a feeling among many people that women should not participate in the modern Olympic Games. In 1932, Jennie Maakal was nominated by the SA Amateur Swimming Union to compete in the Games - thought she was their only nomination - but the S A Olympic Committee would not pay for her. If she wanted to go, she had to pay herself. My grandmother had to take out a large mortgage on their house to get the necessary funds for this, knowing that she does not actually earn enough to handle the repayments. As already said, Jennie then swam in two finals and came third in one of them. Back in South Africa, two other Olympic boxers, Dave Carstens and Laurie Stevens, who both won gold medals, postponed their entry into the professional boxing arena and first presented a show in the Johannesburg City Hall, the entry fee of which was used to pay the mortgage on the Maakals pay back their house. This happened long before I was born, but I still get emotional about this kind act of true camaraderie.