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25 July 1966 - Berzier, France - World record 200m backstroke.

Karen Muir

Kimberley Torpedo

The Timid Torpedo from Kimberley

Watching her handle an interviewer suggests she may not have been as timid as was sometimes suggested - perhaps just a little shy at 12 years and some months old - and speaking in a foreign language. Karen Muir was a force in international swimming for 6 years, when her hometown had no indoor or heated pool, and her main priority was probably to do well enough at school to be selected for medical school. 

Beating all-comers and setting world records - at home in South Africa - and abroad - wherever she was allowed to compete. She was lucky to have Frank Gray as the pool superintendent, and coach, at the local municipal pool. He had just arrived from England when Mrs Muir was looking for swimming lessons for her daughters, and he became one of the most successful coaches in the country's swimming history.

She was also lucky that Ann Fairlie, a few years older and hailing from nearby Johannesburg, also set world records in backstroke events. Karen must have viewed her as a role model - and the best person to beat on her way to becoming the international queen of women's backstrokers. 

18 world records

Karen Muir set 18 world records between 1965 and 1969, but she was never allowed to compete in an Olympic Games, because of the international sports boycott of South African athletes that started in 1962.

Despite that she dominated international women's backstroke for 5 years, beating Olympic champions and setting world records in South Africa and overseas.

 
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Karen Muir (RSA)

Honor Swimmer (1980)

The information on this page was written the year of their induction.

 FOR THE RECORD:  WORLD RECORDS: 15 (100m, 200m 110yd, 220yd backstroke) from 1965 to 1969; The youngest competitor to break a world record (110yd backstroke, Aug. 10, 1965 at age 12); SOUTH AFRICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: 22 (freestyle, backstroke, individual medley); SOUTH AFRICAN RECORDS: 15; U.S. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: 3 (100m, 200m backstroke).

The youngest world record holder any time in any sport was South Africa’s Karen Muir who knocked seven-tenths of a second off Linda Ludgrove’s 110 yd. backstroke world record in England at the A.S.A. National Jr. Championships on the 10th of August, 1965.  Karen’s age was 12 years, 10 months, 25 days.  Between 1965 and 1969 she was the world queen of the backstroke and her 100 meter world record was not broken until 1973, yet ironically the 15-time world record holder was never in an Olympic final due to the Olympic boycott of her native South Africa. 

Although isolated in her training thousands of miles from most of her competition, Karen went on the road adding national championships in the United States and  Great Britain to her 15 South African titles.  Coincidentally South Africa’s only Olympic gold medalist in swimming was also a lady backstroker, Joan Harrison, who won her Olympic title the year Karen was born (1952).  At the beginning of her career, Karen shared backstroke world records with Ann Fairlie, another South African who was not allowed in the Olympics.  Karen Muir DeGraad and her husband are now doctors practicing in the African interior.

TIMELINE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT EVENTS 

Year

Date

Event

1952

Sep 16

Karen Yvette Muir is born to parents Ronnie and Yvonne.

1959

Jan

Karen starts her schooling at Du Toitspan Primary School, Kimberley.

1962

Jan

Mom Yvonne takes Karen to the Queen’s Park pool for swimming lessons.

1962

Aug

Frank Gray is appointed as the Queen’s Park coach and pool superintendent.

1964

Mar

Karen (11) represents Griqualand West at the senior SAASU national championships.

1965

Mar

Karen is selected to the SA national team to tour Spain, Scotland and England.

1965

Aug 10

Karen sets the world record for the 110-yard women’s backstroke in Blackpool.

1966

Feb/Mar

In Durban Karen improves the 110-yard women’s backstroke record twice in a week.

1966

Jul/Aug

Karen sets four world records during the tour of France, the USA and Canada.

1966

Nov

Muir family relocates to Pretoria, Karen swims under coach Bob Campbell.

1966

Dec

Karen is selected as SA Sports Personality of the Year 1966.

1967

Jan/Jul

Karen sets two world records, at Hillcrest, Pretoria and Coventry, UK.

1967

Nov

Muir family moves back to Kimberley, Karen reunites with coach Frank Gray.

1967

Dec

Karen is awarded the State President’s Medal for Sport.

1968

Jan

At the GWASA championships, Karen sets four world records in 24 hours.

1968

Apr/Jun

Karen sets world records in Paris, France and Los Angeles, USA.

1969

Mar

Karen captures six national titles at the SAASU championships in Newlands, Cape Town.

1969

Apr

Coach Frank Gray accepts an appointment in Sasolburg.

1969

Jul

Karen sets her last world record at Utrecht, in the Netherlands.

1970

Feb

Karen represents SA against Australia, then scales back on her swimming.

1971

Feb

Karen enrols at the UOFS for the degree MBChB.

1977

Dec

Karen qualifies as medical doctor from the UOFS.

1978

Mar 11

Karen marries fellow medical doctor, Gerben de Graad.

1980

May

Karen is inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

1982

Jan

De Graad couple joins a medical practice in Ladysmith.

2002

Jan

De Graad couple relocates to Vanderhoof, Canada. Returns to SA in 2004.

2005

 

Karen settles permanently in Vanderhoof, Canada.

2009

 

Karen is diagnosed with breast cancer.

2013

Apr 2

Karen passes away at the home of her sister Liana in Mossel Bay, South Africa.

 Chris Steyl - Timid Torpedo - the legend that was Karen Muir