Karen Muir
Kimberley Torpedo
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.
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.
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 |
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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