Swimming Upstream

Approximately ten years in the life of Anthony Fingleton is presented, from when he was an adolescent in the mid-1950s, to the day of the men's 100m backstroke final at the 1964 Summer Olympics. Growing up in Brisbane, Australia, Tony was the second of five children of working class Harold and Dora Fingleton. It was a dysfunctional growing up with Harold being both physically and emotionally abusive, especially toward Tony and Dora, who in turn tried to protect Tony from that abuse which only angered Harold more. Harry admired what he considered manliness, which Tony admits he never was in the stereotypical way. The abuse was exacerbated by Harold's alcoholism, which in turn led to frequent difficulties with money as Harold, who worked on the docks only when ships were in port, was often off work, sometimes on divisive strikes. On the most part, Tony got along with his siblings, especially "number 3" John. But each of the five children did whatever they needed to do as self-preservation measures against Harold's abuse, sometimes at the expense of harmony with their siblings. As a refuge, especially the four youngest felt comfort in the local pool. It was only when he found out that both Tony and John were good swimmers that Harold began to pay Tony any attention in providing his form of training for the two. Regardless, nothing Tony did was ever good enough, Harold spurring on anyone else but Tony. Still, Tony wanted to make his father proud. Tony still had a grand plan of sorts where winning in the pool in and of itself was not the end goal, but solely a means to a better end.