Lancashire swimmer Lucy Morton's fabulous Olympic gold medal in Paris - 100 years ago
A Blackpool swimmer was celebrating after winning a precious gold in the Paris Olympics - but this one was exactly 100 years ago!
There is currently plenty of excitement as Great Britain’s athletes compete in the 2024 event, especially with the stunning gold medal success of the nation’s men's swimming team in the 4x200m freestyle relay. But back in 1924 Blackpool’s Lucy Morton was the one creating quite a splash in the French capital.
Lucy became a sporting sensation when she became the first British female swimmer to win an Olympic gold medal in an individual race, winning the the women's 200-metre breaststroke race.
Blackpool council opened her local swimming baths so that she could train before and after work - but this was well before Blackpool’s Olympic-sized swimming pool, Derby Baths, opened in 1939. Prior to being selected for the Paris Olcuympics, Lucy had already set the world records for the 150 yard backstroke and 200 yard breaststroke, as well as winning the Mersey Mile Championship.
Lucy retired from competitive swimming after the Olympics and married Harry Heaton in 1927.
Taught at Derby Baths
Later she taught swimming lessons at Derby Baths and served as a competitors’ steward into her seventies.
Lucy died in 1980 in Blackpool, at the age of 82.
She was inducted posthumously into the International Swimming Hall of Fame as an "Honor Pioneer Swimmer" in 1988.[
Lucy’s incredible sporting legacy certainly won’t be lost in the mists of time.
Medal secured by council
Her prized Olympic gold medal was successfully secured by Blackpool Council at auction five years ago,
Significant parts of the athlete’s personal archives and medal collection has now found a home with Blackpool’s Museum and Heritage Service.
The Lucy Morton Collection containing 40 lots of medals and other items was sold at Hansons Auctioneers in Derbyshire tin September 2019.
There to watch the sporting auction unfold was Lucy’s granddaughter Julia Routledge, a retired civil servant from Evesham, Worcestershire, who together with her sister Annette Judge, from Farnham, Surrey, decided the time had come to part with the collection.
The collection was at risk of being dispersed entirely but Blackpool Council was able to secure 18 lots including Lucy’s Olympic Diploma and her 1924 Gold Medal which she won in the 200m breaststroke event.
The total hammer price for all lots including the Gold Medal was £12,255. The funding has come from Blackpool Council and a grant from the Blackpool Civic Trust.
The archive is now housed at the History Centre at Blackpool Central Library which preserves and gives access to Blackpool’s incredible heritage collections.
Lucy was born in Knutsford in 1898, but moved to Blackpool as a child. She attended Christ Church School and was a member of the Blackpool Amateur Swimming Club.