Joan Harrison (swimmer)
Joan Cynthia Harrison is a retired South African swimmer who won the 100 m backstroke event at the 1952 Olympics.
Harrison's mother was a swimmer and her father played rugby. Joan went to Clarendon High School for Girls in East London. At age 13, she held three junior and two senior national records, and two national senior swimming titles. In 1950, aged 14, she won the 440 yd freestyle at the British Empire Games, beating the previous games record by 13 seconds and finishing 7 seconds ahead of other competitors, and was declared the outstanding woman swimmer of the games. She won two more gold medals at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games. In 1982 she was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
