DAWN FRASER REMEMBERS - 'IT MEANT EVERYTHING to win that race'

With a twinkle in her eyes, Dawn Fraser says she just wants to be known, when she passes, as "the cheeky little rascal" who took Australia and the world by storm, after defying critics and overcoming heartbreak to make history at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

But this Aussie larrikin will be remembered for so much more. Dawn, 86, remains our greatest-ever Olympian; the first person to win three gold medals in the same event at three successive Olympic Games.

The story of how Dawn got there is every bit as compelling as her performances in the pool. If it wasn't for her incredible courage and determination to honour her mum Rose, Dawn might never have won that historic third gold medal in Tokyo.

Just nine months before the Games, Dawn was driving her sister and mum home to Kiama on the night the Australian team was named. Suddenly her car slid and flipped, hitting a parked ute. Rose died in the crash, and Dawn was left with a broken neck.

Earlier that night Rose had been presented with a cheque from the family's close-knit community to pay for her trip to Tokyo to watch Dawn swim in her third Olympic Games.

Dawn, who was just 27 at the time, found out her mother had died when she woke in hospital with cracked vertebrae and torn ligaments in her knee. She has always said it was the worst thing that ever happened to her.

"Tokyo was something very special because my mum was supposed to be there, but she wasn't there. It meant everything to me to win that race - it was for her," she later revealed.

"No-one was going to beat me that night. It was the most special swim I had in my life. I looked up in the sky and felt my mother's wedding ring on my finger and I said, "This is for you, Mum." Dawn's historic victory in the 100m freestyle at Tokyo transformed her into the greatest female sprint swimmer ever. But what came next turned her life completely upside down.