Black and white photograph of John Konrads and Dawn Fraser

John Konrads (b1942, arrived Australia 1949) was a Latvian immigrant who came to Australia with his family as refugees after World War II and trained with his sister Ilsa to become teenage swimming sensations, the Konrads' kids, and poster children for the Beautiful Balts immigration campaign post World War II. This collection of material includes personal apparel and clothing, programs, notes, awards and medals relating to John Konrads' competitive career at various NSW, Australian, Commonwealth and Olympic championship events. It represents the peak of Konrads' swimming career, when he broke more than twenty world records in a range of distances from 1957-60, alongside other swimming greats such as Dawn Fraser, Murray Rose, John Devitt and Lorraine Crapp. Other material, including documents and singing performances from his brief television career, represent his life beyond swimming and what is now a common career path for telegenic Australian sporting champions - the media.