William's Story
1892 – 1969
Sydneysider, William "Billy" Longworth, was still a teenager when he went to Stockholm 1912 with high hopes of winning a number of medals, perhaps gold, in the swimming pool. Earlier that year, he had won every freestyle event at the Australian swimming championships, leaving the highly-respected Cecil Healy in his wake.
Once in the Swedish capital, Longworth contracted an ear infection, thought to be caused by the very cold waters, during the competitions and came away empty-handed. He wasn’t well enough to contest the final of the 100 metres freestyle, for which he had qualified, or the semi-finals of the 1500 metres freestyle; or even to take his place in the Australasian gold medal-winning 4 x 200 metres freestyle team.
Lieutenant Longworth took part in the Inter-Allied Games after the cessation of World War I. Longworth Place in the Canberra suburb of Holt is named in his honour.
