A great partnership, strong foundation of faith and Olympic Gold:

John and Wendy Devitt celebrate 60 years of marriage

By Debra Vermeer

When a teenage Wendy Hogan met John Devitt on the school bus, she had no idea that their love story would span more than 60 years and produce four children, seven grandchildren, and four Olympic Swimming Medals.

John was already a serious swimmer by the time the two met as teenagers.

“We met on the school bus,” says Wendy. “John was at Parramatta Marist and I was across the road at Our Lady of Mercy College. We would’ve been about 15.

“It started out as a fairly long friendship because John was training and working very hard on his swimming, so we only saw each other on weekends for a while.

“The first time we went out together was to the parish dance and my parents came with us!”

John says Wendy, who is the sister of Australian comedy legend and actor Paul Hogan, was very patient and understanding as he pursued his dream of Olympic Gold.

“I was keen to go to the (Melbourne) Olympics in ’56 and Wendy was very understanding of all the work involved. She was wonderful really and that strengthened our relationship over time,” he says.

John came home from the Melbourne Games with a Silver Medal in the 100m Freestyle and a Gold in the 4 x 200m Relay and his eyes firmly set on competing in the next Games in Rome.

Wendy says that despite the long separations, she was fully occupied during those years, studying for her Diploma in Pathology and working at St Vincent’s Hospital.

“We wrote a lot of letters during those years,” she says. “Until John went to the Rome Olympics, that’s how our relationship grew, with letters.”

Wendy wasn’t able to accompany John to Rome in 1960, but she listened to his big race on the radio. It wasn’t until several days later when the film footage was flown home to Australia that she could see it on the television.

Listening at home, it was a tense time for Wendy and other family members, as John approached the wall neck and neck with the American Lance Larson. A difference among timekeepers about who touched first resulted in an agonising 20 minute delay in announcing the winner, but following a conference between the judges and the referee, the judge’s decision declared John the winner with the official time of 55.2 seconds, an Olympic record.

John also won Bronze in the 4x200m Freestyle Relay with John Konrads, Murray Rose and David Dickson. Over his 13-year swimming career, apart from his four Olympic Medals, John won three Gold Medals at the 1958 Cardiff British Empire and Commonwealth Games, broke 14 World Records (four individual), and won 13 Australian Championships (three individual).

Returning home from Rome, John retired from competitive swimming and married his sweetheart Wendy in February 1961 at her parish, Blessed (now Saint) Oliver Plunkett in Harris Park.

They settled in Beacon Hill on the Northern Beaches, building a home in which they would go on to raise their four children and remain living until several years ago when they downsized to North Narrabeen.

John joined the Speedo swimwear company as a trainee and went on to become its European Manager and then Director of the company. That journey took the family to the United Kingdom to live for three years from 1970-73.

He later moved into swimming coaching and became a member of the Australian Olympic Committee and then its Vice-President. He attended every Olympic Games from 1956 to 2004 and was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1979 and the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1986. John was made a Member of the Order of Australia for his services to swimming and sports administration in 1989.

“I could do all of this because I had a great wife who let me do what I had to do,” he says.

“But at each stage along the way, we always took the big decisions together, like when we moved to the UK for instance. We always talked things over and decided together.”

John says the Olympic movement is like a big family and its members have a special bond.

“I’ve been fortunate to see the Australian Olympic movement grow and develop over the years. There’s no comparison now to how it was back in my day. We had a team of 250 in 1956 and there will be well over 400 going to Japan this year,” he says.

“It’s a challenge you set yourself and if you’re fortunate that everything works and you’re at your top when you’re competing, and you get that opportunity then it is very, very special.”

Wendy says their two boys and two girls enjoyed the water on the Northern Beaches but never took up swimming seriously.

“They had their own sporting life and other interests,” she says.

Due to COVID restrictions in February, the couple celebrated their 60th anniversary quietly, by going out for lunch together.

“Because of the way things were with COVID, we decided not to have a big family event, although the family members did come and see us in smaller numbers, and celebrate with us that way,” she says. “We went to Mass (at The Lakes Catholic Parish where they are parishioners) on the actual day of our anniversary and Fr Robert (Borg) presented us with a blessing from the Bishop which was very nice.”

Their shared faith has been a foundation for John and Wendy through the years.

“It’s been part of the process of a happy life,” Wendy says. “We’ve been in some good parishes over the years and good Catholic schools for the children.”

She says they’re grateful for their life together, especially now, aged in their 80s, as their friendship circle grows smaller.

“I think it’s about cooperation and having that love there and showing it,” she says.

“The children have been wonderful and we’ve still got each other, so we must be doing something right.”

John Devitt in his Olympic swimming days