Warrender Baths Club
Their swimmers compete in a wide range of international and national competitions including the Olympic and Commonwealth Games.
[5] In 1906 Warrender Baths closed for economic reasons but the Club carried on at Portobello swimming pool.
[1] However, the male-dominated Warrender Baths Club of the time, prevented Ellen and other female swimmers from holding a ladies gala event.
[5][9] Warrender's Jean McDowell came fourth in the 100 yards Freestyle in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics in an extremely close finish.
[11] At the 1930 British Empire Games in Hamilton, Canada, Jean and fellow Warrender swimmer Jessie McVey both won bronze medals as part of the Scottish relay team.
Jean later remarked that female competitive swimmers had great difficulty training in the 1920s and 30s as mixed bathing was forbidden and training times for women were often restricted – in Warrender's case only on Saturday mornings when schools were there, leaving little room for Olympic hopefuls to swim.
[15] Warrender swimmers Gordon Downie and Alan McClatchey (then studying at the University of Michigan[18]) also won Olympic bronzes as part of the 4 × 200 m Freestyle Relay team.
At the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Easter (who was then studying at Arizona State University[21][22]) won a bronze medal swimming for Britain in the 4 × 200 m Freestyle Relay.
[5][23] In 1986 Paul Easter, Colin Bole and Andrew Smith swam in the Scottish Commonwealth Games team.
The Club held a Centenary Gala in Dunfermline and other social events to celebrate the 100 years of its existence.
Warrender decided to train its own elite swimmers and won the Solripe Trophy (East District Swimming Championship) in 2000 and for the next 12 years,.
[30] Merchiston Castle School allowed Warrender swimmers to use their pool in exchange for swimming lessons and training to schoolchildren.
Club swimmers trained in Barcelona, Spain, Eger, Hungary, Castres, France, Fort Lauderdale, USA, Bühl (Baden), Germany and Reykjavík, Iceland.
[31] Lewis Smith won gold at the 2008 Tri-Nations Swimming Contest with France and Canada in Quebec.
[4] Smith competed at the 2009 World Aquatics Championships in Rome, Italy[34][35] Craig Hamilton swam at the 2009 European Open Water Swimming Championships in Eilat[36] and Craig Benson competed at the 2009 European Youth Olympic Festival in Tampere.
[34][38] In 2011, Dan Wallace and Benson won silver medals at the 2011 European Junior Swimming Championships in Belgrade.
[43] Smith swam for Great Britain in the European Open Water Championships in Piombino, Italy.
[44] Benson swam in the 2012 European Short Course Swimming Championships in Chartres, France, and was part of the Medley relay squad that broke the British record.
Dan Wallace (then studying at University of Florida[49]) won a gold medal in the 400 m individual medley and two silver medals; Craig Hamilton (then studying at Louisiana State University[50]) won a silver with the Scottish 4 × 200 m men's relay team; Craig Benson was 4th in the 100 m breastroke; Fiona Donnelly (then studying at the Virginia Tech University[51]) was in the Scottish 4 × 100 m medley relay team which came 4th; Lewis Smith was 5th in the 400 m individual medley and Craig McNally was 5th in the 200 m backstroke.
[54] With 350 swimmers and 600 members (in 2013)[4][26][55] Warrender has had to use many many other Edinburgh venues for training – in particular the Olympic-sized Royal Commonwealth Pool.
[16] Frank developed ten swimmers to represent Scotland at the Commonwealth games including David Wilkie who achieved an Olympic gold medal, added various new swimming training venues and recruited assistant coaches.
