Paolo Radmilovic

Paolo Radmilovic made his debut for the Wales national water polo team at the age of 15 in 1901. At the time he was the youngest international player in the history of the sport. He competed in international swimming and water polo for nearly 30 years, his first Welsh swimming title coming over 100 yards at the age of 15 in 1901 and his last one a 440 yards victory at the age of 43 in 1929. He was he Welsh 100 yards title holder for more than two decades. He also won nine Amateur Swimming Association titles over a range of distances, from the 100 yards to the five-mile open water. He was described as “easily the most versatile swimmer of his day”.

Paolo Radmilovic’s ASA Titles
100 yards: 1909
440 yards: 1925
½ Mile: 1926
1 Mile: 1925, 1926, 1927
Long Distance (Kew to Putney 5.5 miles): 1907, 1925, 1926

If you include the 1906 Intercalated Games, ‘Raddy’ competed at six Olympic Games – he was 20 in Athens in 1906 and 42 in Amsterdam in 1928. It would take until 1976 before another British athlete, the fencer Bill Hoskyns, competed at six Games for Great Britain. He also won four Olympic gold medals. The first two came at the 1908 London Games, when he scored twice in a 9-2 win over Belgium in the water polo final. Two days later he was called into the men’s 4 x 200 metre relay team when one of the quartet fell ill and picked up another gold.

He captained the British water-polo team at four of the five Games at which he competed in the sport, The British team successfully defended their Olympic title in Stockholm in 1912 and returned after WWI to make it a hat-trick in Antwerp. ‘Raddy’ was the team captain in 1912 and 1920 and scored the wining goal in a brutal final against host nation Belgium in Antwerp in 1920.

In 1905, when Wales beat Ireland 7-1 in a water-polo international in Penarth, Raddy scored six goals. He won the British Olympic trial over 440 yards in 1928. He swam for Wales at the inaugural British Empire Games in Hamilton, Canada, in 1930 and in the same year he entered the English Amateur Golf Championships at Burnham. He also and played at Royal St George’s, Sandwich, in 1932.

His father, Antun, was a Croatian who had moved to Wales in the 1860s, but his mother was born in the Welsh capital, the daughter of Irish immigrants. The couple were pub landlords at the Glastonbury Arms and the Bute Dock Tavern, both on Bute Street. He also became a publican in Bath and Weston, where his trophies and memorabilia were on display. In 1967 he became only the second British swimmer to be inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in the USA.

Paolo Radmilovic’s Olympic Record
1906 Athens Swimming 100 metres Freestyle 4th
400 metres Freestyle 5th
One Mile Freestyle DNF
1908 London Water Polo Great Britain Gold
1908 London Swimming 100 metres Freestyle Heats
400 metres Freestyle Heats
1,500 metres Freestyle Heats
4 x 200 metres Relay Gold
1912 Stockholm Water Polo Great Britain Gold
Swimming 100 metres Freestyle Heats
1920 Antwerp Water Polo Great Britain Gold
1924 Paris Water Polo Great Britain 10th
1928 Amsterdam Water Polo Great Britain 4th

Paolo Francesco Radmilovic (Swimmer / Water Polo Player) Born in Cardiff on 5 March, 1886; Died in Weston super Mare on 29 September, 1968.