It’s the green slime on the wall of her school swimming pool that Jill Craven remembers best, as she felt her teacher’s hand on her head, pushing her underwater. “You know how time slows? Going under. Watching …” she says.
This was in Palmerston North, New Zealand, when she was five. While her three older siblings could swim half a mile (800 metres) or more, and her peers were doing at least a quarter, Craven “would try anything to get out of lessons”. Her mother was a PE teacher, her father a headmaster. They played tennis and rugby, and in this culture of sportiness Craven could hide her fear of water in proficiency at tennis and netball.
