Sandra Morgan - Later Career

Later Career

After the Olympics, Crapp and Fraser took a break from competitive swimming, while Leech retired. This allowed Morgan an opening, and she won both the junior and open sprint titles at the 1957 New South Wales Championships. She followed this by winning three individual titles at the Australian Championships in Canberra; the 110 yd, 220 yd and 440 yd freestyle, in times of 1 min 7.8 s, 2 min 29.3 s and 5 m 21.6 s respectively, times that were slower than her bests in 1956. She was part of the New South Wales team that won the 4 × 100 yd freestyle and medley relays, anchoring both quartets.

In 1958, Crapp and Fraser returned to the pool, while Ilsa Konrads emerged as a leading swimmer. At the Australian Championships, Morgan came third in both the 110 yd and 440 yd freestyle events; Fraser won both and Crapp and Konrads placed second in the 110 yd and 440 yd freestyle respectively. Morgan was selected for the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, Wales, but only in the 4 × 110 yd freestyle relay. Along with Fraser, Crapp and Konrads, she broke the world record for the event in March in Sydney with a time of 4 min 18.9 s. At the Empire Games, Fraser, Crapp, Morgan and Colquhuon lowered the world record to a time of 4 min 17.4 s to win gold.

After the Empire Games, the Australian team returned home via France, Austria, Germany, Netherlands, Italy and Singapore for a series of competitions. Morgan's best performances were at the Dutch and French Championships, where she came third in the 400 m events. In 1959, she placed third in both the 440 yd 880 yd freestyle events at the Australian Championships. Her swimming career was then interrupted by bronchitis, which developed into bronchial pneumonia. The illness forced her to take an extended break. Her chest problems persisted when she returned to competition at the 1960 Australian Championships, placing third in the 220 yd and 440 yd freestyle and fifth in the 110 yd freestyle. She gained selection for the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome as a member of the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay squad. She swam the first leg in the heats, posting a time of 1 min 5.5 s, giving Australia a 1.0 s lead. Australia led at every change and went on to win its heat by five seconds, qualifying fastest for the final. However, Morgan posted the slowest leg of the Australian quartet and was dropped when Fraser and Konrads were brought into the team for the final, in which Australia won silver. Under the rules of the time, heat swimmers were not awarded medals if the final quartet placed in the top three positions. Suffering from periodic chest pain, Morgan retired from competitive swimming in December 1960.