What is the best moment of your career?
Winning the British Empire and Commonwealth Games 4x110yd medley team gold medal in Cardiff in 1958. It was at a time when Australia was in the ascendency. They had Dawn Fraser and anything associated with her was unbeatable. Our team worked out that if I swam at my world record pace in the backstroke and Anita Lonsbrough swam a personal best in the breaststroke and Chris Gosden in the butterfly, then we would give little Di Wilkinson enough of a lead to swim two lengths of front crawl and Fraser not to catch her. Fraser was like Jaws chasing a swimmer in the water. Di was doing her best with her little arms and Fraser was catching her all the time. But we won in a world record time. Australia hadn’t been beaten for so long.
In our day you couldn’t get excited. If you jumped up and down, people would say, ‘What a big head’. So you didn’t do it, but because it was a team race you could. It was in front of a home crowd and it was wonderful. Winning the Olympic backstroke gold medal in Melbourne in 1956 wasn’t my best moment because I didn’t believe — and still don’t believe — I had won it. Who, me? It was too big a thing to believe. I could enjoy the medley team win: I could jump up and down and cheer the team. The Olympic medal was an amazing experience but it was like an out-of-body experience. We flew to Melbourne and stopped off in Singapore, which was really hot. I had heat exhaustion and was very ill on the way over. I was behind at the turn and 10m from the finish I was level with Carin Cone and was absolutely dead. A little voice said to me, ‘Look, you are never going to be in an Olympic final again, what does it matter if you die when you finish’. That was the inspiration I needed.
What was your worst moment?
Losing for the first time after I had won the gold medal. It was an extraordinarily painful experience. I lost to Natalie Steward. I had been invited to take part in the South African championships.
I left England in January 1957 when there was snow on the ground and flew out to Rhodesia. It was their summer. I had one night’s rest and then competed and, not surprisingly, she beat me. What hurt was that there was a journalist who wrote an article after the loss that said I was finished. That turned the knife in the wound.
Who was your best opponent?
Margaret Edwards. She and I were rivals throughout our careers from county events to internationals and we were always pushing each other. She was a fantastic swimmer.
What was the best advice you were given?
Before I became an international I was told to move my arms faster by my coach, my parents and people in the swimming club. I said I couldn’t. Then I appeared on a televised swim and saw myself and wondered why my arms were going so slowly. That realisation helped me swim faster.
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What advice would you give to a young Olympic competitor?
Even when you think you can’t go any faster, you can. You have got it inside you, use it. That is what happened to me in the final and that’s why I won.
Which was your best stroke?
Backstroke because I won everything I could, but I always maintained that I was a front crawler, which I preferred. After the Olympics, I decided to swim front crawl and won a bronze medal in the European championships, which I am really proud of.
Which was the best venue?
Cardiff. I felt good in that pool and the water felt like silk.
Which was the worst venue?
In Denmark in 1955 when I was in an international and the pool was built into the sea on wood and the sea lapped into the pool. It was freezing. I can still remember it.
Where are you now?
I am 72 years old and live in Cornwall by myself but am moving to Hertfordshire in two weeks to be closer to my family. I have never talked about my swimming. If when you achieve the biggest thing you are ever likely to achieve at 17 and you make too much noise about it then, the rest of your life is an anti-climax and it is a lot of life that is an anti-climax. I have always played it down. I got the balance wrong but it was no bad thing. When I gave up swimming I had two children and I didn’t want them to be Judy Grinham’s children. It meant taking a back seat. I was married twice and was always Mrs Rowley and now Mrs Roe. My international swimming career lasted from the age of 15 to 19. There was no support or sponsorship and no facilities. I was training for the Olympics in public facilities with no lanes. I would travel half an hour on the Underground and a quarter-hour walk to get to the pool. Sometimes in the summer the pool was so full of people it wasn’t worth diving in. My parents supported me with everything and I decided it was time to get a proper job. I had won everything I could and decided it was better to go out on top. I appeared in a film called Operation Bullshine and was then a swimming reporter on the Daily Express. I was also a training manager at Dr Barnardo’s for 15 years and have worked for charities all my working life. Now I try to paint and also sing in the church choir. I was the one on the bus that started everyone singing on the way to swimming galas. I was married to Mike, my soulmate, for almost 30 years but he died of cancer in February last year. The past seven years have been hard. I have a daughter, Alison, and a son, Keith, from my first marriage and four stepchildren. I also have five grandchildren and five step-grandchildren.