In the early 20th century, Sydney’s Bronte Baths witnessed a race that would forever change the world of competitive swimming.
The year was 1901, and in an ocean pool carved into sandstone cliffs, a 14-year-old Solomon Islander named Alick Wickham dived into the water to showcase a stroke that would soon be known as the Australian crawl.
What started as an instinctual adaptation soon blossomed into the fastest and most efficient swimming technique, influencing generations of swimmers and revolutionising competitive freestyle events.
The Australian Crawl, marked by its alternating overarm action, flutter kick and rhythmic side breathing, is the backbone of modern freestyle swimming.
It is often considered the fastest stroke, and its development was not without its controversies and cultural exchanges, which ultimately led to the stroke’s transformation from a local curiosity to an international standard.
Born in 1886 in the Solomon Islands, Alick Wickham grew up in the Roviana Lagoon, an area where the sea was an integral part of life.
Born in the Solomon Islands, Alick Wickham learned the tapatapala stroke, now recognised globally as modern freestyle swimming technique
At just fourteen, Wickham’s lightning-fast stroke stunned Sydney spectators and changed the future of competitive swimming forever
Despite facing racism in early 1900s Australia, Wickham’s swimming success brought national recognition and admiration from sporting crowds
As a child, Wickham was taught a unique crawl stroke, later known as the Australian crawl, by his indigenous community.
This stroke was adapted to tackle the challenging open-ocean currents, something that would later captivate the attention of Australian swimmers.
In 1901, Wickham moved to Sydney, where he quickly became known for his swimming prowess at Bronte Beach’s sea baths.
It was here that the stroke caught the eye of Australian coach George Farmer.
According to Farmer, upon seeing Wickham’s performance, he exclaimed, ‘Look at that kid crawling!’
This moment marked the birth of the term ‘Australian crawl’ and set the stage for the stroke’s future prominence.
Arthur Freeman, an observer of Wickham’s technique, described the swimmer’s rhythmic six-beat kick as reminiscent of an outboard motor.
Freeman’s comparison highlighted the unique power of Wickham’s stroke, which combined speed and efficiency in a way that had not been seen in Western swimming before.
Richmond “Dick” Cavill and his brothers embraced the Australian crawl, refining the stroke and helping propel it onto the world stage
Olympic gold medallist Cecil Healy also adopted the Australian crawl, showcasing its speed and helping cement its place in competitive swimming
Despite these innovations, the world had not yet fully appreciated the significance of Wickham’s stroke.
The stroke’s adoption was not immediate, as swimmers in Australia were still experimenting with various techniques.
Yet, Wickham’s performance at the 1901 Eastern Suburbs Swimming Carnival in Sydney would prove to be the turning point.
His dominant victory in the 66-yard event was a clear demonstration of the crawl stroke’s superior speed. His swim was described as ‘romping away’ from the competition, leaving spectators in awe.
As the popularity of the stroke spread, it became clear that Wickham’s technique had potential beyond Australia.
The front crawl, once considered clumsy, was now viewed as the future of competitive swimming.
Other swimmers, including Dick Cavill, took Wickham’s stroke and refined it further, eventually bringing it to the international stage. However, the journey of the Australian crawl was not without its challenges.
Wickham, who had grown up in a predominantly white society, faced significant racism during his rise to fame.
Hawaiian champion Duke Kahanamoku mastered the Australian Crawl, winning Olympic gold and introducing the stroke to audiences worldwide
As he gained recognition, the Australian media initially branded him with derogatory terms.
Yet, with his undeniable success in the water, the language surrounding him began to change.
Wickham’s transition from being described with racial slurs to being hailed as a ‘bronzed’ Pacific Islander marked a shift in how he was perceived, his swimming talent shielding him from some of the racial prejudice of the time.
Though Wickham was instrumental in the development of the Australian crawl, it was not until Australian swimmers like Cavill and other notable athletes showcased the stroke internationally that it truly gained traction.
In the early 20th century, swimmers who used the crawl often faced criticism for their lack of elegance compared to breaststroke swimmers, which was considered the gold standard of ‘elegance’ in swimming.
Yet, the crawl’s unmatched speed began to overshadow these concerns, paving the way for it to become the dominant swimming style in competitive swimming worldwide.
Wickham’s legacy, however, extends beyond the pool. He was also an accomplished diver, setting a world record in 1918 with a 62-metre swan dive into the Yarra River, attracting over 70,000 spectators.
His dive, part of a fundraising event for Australian soldiers, remains one of his most remarkable achievements.
Ian Thorpe made history in modern freestyle, winning multiple Olympic golds and setting world records
Without the Aussie crawl, champion athletes like Katie Ledecky would never have become super fish at the Olympics
‘I could not say how I reached the water or how I struck it,’ Wickham later recalled.
‘But I do know that I was sore and bleeding in places from the chest to the waist.’
Despite his swimming and diving accomplishments, Wickham’s personal life was far from easy.
After years of competitive swimming, he returned to the Solomon Islands, where he led a relatively quiet life.
He remarried and had several children, and though he worked as a taxi driver and did various jobs to make ends meet, his earlier fame had faded into obscurity. However, his contributions to the world of swimming were not forgotten.
In 1967, when Wickham passed away at the age of 81, his legacy as a swimming pioneer was far-reaching but not fully recognised in his home country.
While he is honoured in the Solomon Islands, including a swimming pool named in his honor in Honiara, his name is not as widely celebrated in Australia.
However, his story has been preserved in the Australian Sporting Hall of Fame and the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
In 1918, Wickham set a daring world diving record, leaping 62 metres into Melbourne’s Yarra River before huge crowds
One of Wickham’s relatives, Dorothy Wickham, takes immense pride in his achievements.
‘He has contributed a huge, huge part to the sport by bringing the freestyle swimming technique to the outside world and enabling people to have the joy of using this technique,’ she told ABC.
Her words reflect the significance of Wickham’s contributions, which were not just about setting records but about fundamentally changing the way the world approached swimming.
The 1901 race at Bronte Baths was pivotal in the development of the Australian crawl, but it was not an isolated event in the stroke’s history.
According to Dr Osmond, the race itself simplified the true story of the stroke’s evolution. ‘It overlooks the much more complicated story that involves paying tribute to people throughout the Pacific,’ he said.
‘These early pioneers, who swam in the open oceans long before the Western world had recognised their techniques, were instrumental in shaping the swimming world as we know it today.
Today, the Australian crawl is the standard for competitive freestyle swimming, dominating events worldwide.
It is the stroke that athletes use in the Olympics, World Championships, and countless other competitions. It’s the stroke that swimmers like Ian Thorpe, Michael Phelps, and Katie Ledecky have perfected to become legends in their own right.
Every year, the Roviana Lagoon Festival in the Solomon Islands honours Wickham’s legacy with the Alick Wickham Swim, a celebration of his contributions to swimming and the sport he helped define.
The event takes participants on a swim from the mainland to the very spot where Wickham grew up, commemorating the origins of a stroke that continues to shape the sport of swimming.
