Kevin O'Halloran - 1956 Melbourne Olympics

1956 Melbourne Olympics

Having arrived in Melbourne, O'Halloran was rested—along with Rose and Henricks—in the heats of the relay. Devitt, Chapman, Graham Hamilton and Garretty finished third in their heat behind Great Britain and the Soviet Union, and qualified fifth fastest behind Japan and the United States. Australia led from the start and reached the midpoint of the race with a lead of 4.5 s. Hamilton swam a very slow third leg of 2 min 15.4 s and conceded 8.8 s to the British.

Australia's final quartet was much stronger, with Rose winning the 400 m freestyle, and Henricks and Devitt winning the gold and silver medals respectively in the 100 m freestyle. Devitt had forced his way into the team with his heat swim of 2 min 7.5 s, which was the second fastest among all of the swimmers in the heats. With four of the five fastest individual swimmers in the calendar year for the event, Australia was heavily favoured to win the relay; Sports Illustrated predicted a world record and a victory margin of around 14 metres.

O'Halloran's inclusion at the expense of Chapman was the subject of controversy, because Chapman had won bronze in the 100 m event and was the national 220 yd freestyle champion. O'Halloran's selection also broke up the team of Devitt, Rose, Chapman and Henricks, which had won the relay for New South Wales at the Australian Championships. O'Halloran led off and put Australia in the lead with an Olympic record time of 2 min 6.8 s, opening a gap of 0.7 s over the Soviet Union and 1.2 s over the United States. The fourth-placed Italians were already a full three seconds in arrears. Australia never relinquished the lead and steadily increased it, as Devitt, Rose and Henricks set the three fastest splits in the race, quicker than all the non-Australian swimmers. O'Halloran's split was the fifth fastest in the race; the Soviet anchor swimmer was the only non-Australian to swim faster, and only by 0.1 s despite having the benefit of a flying start. This resulted in Australia winning gold in a world record time of 8 min 23.6 s, almost eight seconds ahead of the second-place Americans and 13 ahead of the Soviets. The win made O'Halloran the first Western Australian to win any Olympic medal.

In his only individual event, O'Halloran qualified for the 400 m final, having won his heat in a time of 4 min 36.8 s, 0.5 s ahead of Japan's Koji Nonoshita. However, his heat was relatively slow, meaning that he was the sixth fastest qualifier. Swimming from lane seven, O'Halloran cut almost 4 s off his personal best to lose the bronze medal to the United States' George Breen by 0.4 s, in a race won by Rose. O'Halloran reduced Breen's margin by 1.3 s in the last 100 m, but it was not enough as he finished in a time of 4 min 32.9 s. O'Halloran returned to Perth after the Olympics to be welcomed by a motorcade and a civic reception. He was named as one of the five Western Australian Sportspeople of the Year in recognition of his winning performance. Despite his achievements, the state government ignored calls for Western Australia to build an Olympic standard swimming pool, until constructing one for the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Perth.