BBN / JUNE 2021
ACROSS OUR DIOCESE
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!”
Diploma in Pathology and working at St Vincent’s Hospital.
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.
“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.”
“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
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).
John and Wendy Devitt 26 /
Returning home from Rome, John retired from competitive swimming and married his sweetheart Wendy in February 1961 at her parish,
