{"id":807570,"date":"2026-07-18T05:11:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T05:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/807570\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T05:11:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T05:11:15","slug":"olympians-return-to-iconic-north-sydney-pool-for-50-year-reunion-of-montreal-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/807570\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympians return to iconic North Sydney pool for 50-year reunion of Montreal games"},"content":{"rendered":"

Members of the 1976 Australian Olympic swim team have returned to North Sydney Olympic pool to celebrate their 50-year reunion and revisit the venue that shaped their careers.<\/p>\n

The team trained at the iconic harbourside pool during a golden era of swimming, a period when the venue became one of the world’s most recognised competitive swimming locations.<\/p>\n

Between 1953 and 1978, the pool was the training ground for a generation of champions, with 86 world records set.<\/p>\n

\"Australia<\/p>\n

The harbourside pool was the training venue for the swim team that represented Australia at the 1976 Olympics. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Members of the 1976 team went on to collectively hold numerous world records throughout their sporting careers.<\/p>\n

Originally built in 1938, the pool has undergone a major redevelopment. After closing in February 2021, the public will again get access to the facilities in August.<\/p>\n

The renovation started as a $28 million project but quickly grew to $58m before ending up with the $122m price tag.<\/p>\n

‘Fond memories’<\/p>\n

Graham Windeatt won silver when he swam the 1500m freestyle at the Munich Olympics in 1972 before going on to captain the 1976 Games’ Australian swimming team.<\/p>\n

Windeatt said he had “fond memories” of the refurbished pool, where he first swam when he was eight.<\/p>\n

\"Graham<\/p>\n

Graham Windeatt says he has fond memories of swimming at the newly refurbished pool. (ABC News: Chantelle Al-Khouri)<\/p>\n

It was the same pool where he set a world record for the 880m freestyle in 1971.<\/p>\n

“That was very groundbreaking and it hasn’t happened since,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Our whole support group in those days was mum and dad and our coach.<\/p>\n

“There was no sports psychologists, no specialists, no rub-downs \u2026 we did it by the bootstraps, basically.”<\/p>\n

Judy Hudson, nee Laxton, was 17-years-old when she competed at Montreal in the breaststroke and butterfly 200m, 400m individual medley and 4x100m medley relay. She was one of three team captains.<\/p>\n

\"former<\/p>\n

Judy Hudson says the pool was one of her favourites. (ABC News: Chantelle Al-Khouri)<\/p>\n

She remembers going to North Sydney for the trials, saying the pool was where she “swam the best in her career”.<\/p>\n

“It was a saltwater pool, so I think we had better buoyancy back then,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know if it’s saltwater now or a combination, but it was one of the best Australian titles I ever did to get into the Games.<\/p>\n

“This pool was one of my favourites, it’s lovely to see it’s still here \u2014 just the architecture. The deep end was the starting block.<\/p>\n

“Back then, we used to have dyna stats that we used to work on before we got into the pool, which I don’t think anyone would know what a dyna stat is anymore; it’s kind of like a dinosaur exercise machine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“But very fond memories, it’s a great pool.”\"Sydney<\/p>\n

The pool was previously a training ground for a generation of swimming champions. (Supplied: Facebook)<\/p>\n

At the age of 16, Max Metzker swam the 1500m freestyle with Stephen Holland and Paul Nash at the Montreal Olympics.<\/p>\n

Metzker said his teammates helped to ground him amid the excitement of the games.<\/p>\n

“It’s always overwhelming with the opening and closing ceremony and all the hype, but you’ve still got to focus on your event,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Max<\/p>\n

Max Metzker was a 16-year-old when he swam for Australia in the 1976 Montreal Olympics. (ABC News: Chantelle Al-Khouri)<\/p>\n

Metzker said he enjoyed returning to the iconic venue.<\/p>\n

“I haven’t seen some of these people for 50 years, so there’s definitely a bonding and camaraderie amongst us,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Members of the 1976 Australian Olympic swim team have returned to North Sydney Olympic pool to celebrate their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":807571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[381546,381556,64,63,381547,381544,381553,381550,381552,381551,381554,2733,5847,381548,381555,10018,85,381545,182874,381549],"class_list":["post-807570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-1976-australian-olympic-team","tag-1976-olympic-games","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-olympians","tag-north-sydney-olympic-pool","tag-north-sydney-olympic-pool-cost","tag-north-sydney-olympic-pool-opening","tag-north-sydney-olympic-pool-reopening","tag-north-sydney-pool","tag-north-sydney-pool-update","tag-nsw","tag-nsw-news","tag-olympian-swimmers","tag-olympic-pool-sydney","tag-olympics","tag-sports","tag-swimming-record","tag-sydney-news","tag-tracey-wickham"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}