Joyce Macdonald

Born on 24 February 1922, Macdonald was from Invercargill.^[1][2] She came to national attention as a 15-year-old in 1937 when she broke her own national intermediate girls' record for the 100 yards backstroke with a time of 1:17.8, which was only 1.4 seconds slower than the senior record for the event, held by Ena Stockley.^[2]

She was selected to swim for New Zealand in the 110 yards backstroke at the 1938 British Empire Games in Sydney,^[3] becoming the first Empire Games representative from Southland.^[4] She began well in her heat, being in second place at the turn, but faded in the second half of the race to finish in a time of 1:28.6 and did not qualify for the final.^[5] Macdonald also competed in the 3 x 110 yards medley relay at the Sydney games, alongside Winnie Dunn and Mona Leydon, with the trio recording 4:22.3 in finishing fifth.^[6]

In March 1938, Macdonald broke Ena Stockley's national 100 yards backstroke record at Gisborne, recording 1:16.2.^[7] Later that year, in November, she broke the New Zealand 200 m backstroke record, previously held by Marie Farquhar of Auckland, with a time of 3:10.0.^[8] In January 1939, she swam the 100 metres backstroke in 1:22.0, breaking the previous record held by Ena Stockley by 2.4 seconds.^[9] In February 1940, Macdonald became the first New Zealand woman to swim 200 metres backstroke in under three minutes, with a time of 2:56.8.^[10]

Macdonald won the 100 yards and 200 metres backstroke titles at the New Zealand national championships in 1939, 1940 and 1941.^[11]

After World War II, Macdonald married Douglas Stretton Walker; he died in 1989.^[12] Joyce Walker died on 3 August 2003.^[1]