David Wilkie

Speaker 10:00

Hello, I'm Kirstie Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Disc's Archive. For rights' reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen seventy six, and the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:30

Our castaway this week is the swimmer who brought back a gold medal together with a silver one from the Montreal Olympics, David Wilkie. David, you're a retired swimmer now, aren't you? Yes, I am. I'm retired.

Presenter0:43

Officially after Montreal, but I still swam in one more competition after that. Retired at the ripe old age of twenty-two. How would you like the idea of a spell on a desert island to recuperate? Well, it'd suit me right now. It's suit me just down to the ground to get away from everything and uh relax a bit. You lived in Florida for a few years. You must have visited a few desert islands. Oh, I have that. Uh the closest one being Bimini, which um I went with a couple of friends and in fact there was only probably about another three or four people on the whole island.

Presenter1:12

What would you be happiest to have got away from? I think the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Um it'd be nice to escape from the the cars and the streets and the people walking around and everything. Is music important to you? Oh yes, it plays a big part of my life. Um

Presenter1:28

Uh music helps me relax and uh I always have enjoyed listening to music. You can choose just eight records to take into exile. What's the first one? Uh Heaven is Ten Zillion Light Years Away by Stevie Wonder. Why do you choose it? Well I suppose it represents to me some a religious flavor and uh he speaks of God in here and he speaks of God being so far away from people on earth and uh I suppose not being a very religious person it uh it means a little bit more to me than you know going to church and listening to it to from a minister.

David Wilkie1:59

Can't say that I'm heaven in.

David Wilkie2:05

Ten to your light years away

David Wilkie2:10

But if so, let all be pure at heart.

David Wilkie2:15

Just to walk around the streets, I pray. Let God's love shine within to save.

Presenter2:27

Evan is Ten Zillion Light Years Away by Stevie Wonder. What's your second disc?

Presenter2:32

Second disc is Hot Stuff by The Rolling Stones. Uh the reason I chose this was just because it's uh it appeals to my musical taste.

David Wilkie2:46

Still

David Wilkie2:51

Yeah.

David Wilkie2:56

Stephen.

David Wilkie3:01

Master

David Wilkie3:03

Yeah

David Wilkie3:08

I'm still a little bit.

Presenter3:10

Hot Staff by The Rolling Stones. David, you're a Scot, but you were born in Sri Lanka, Ceylon. What were your parents doing there?

Presenter3:19

My father was the managing director of an import-export firm. Um he's been he had been living in Salon for uh

Presenter3:26

I think about eight years before I was born.

Presenter3:29

Did you live near the beach?

Presenter3:31

We were about three miles away from the beach, but when we were young we spent most of our time at the Colombo Swimming Club, which was just over the wall from the beach. I believe you could swim before you could walk.

Presenter3:40

Well, I I don't think that is the the real case, but I was in the water a lot when I was very, very young indeed and uh before I could walk I was, you know, actually paddling around in the water, but being helped by my parents. When did you first come to Great Britain?

Presenter3:53

Um

Presenter3:55

The first time I came for any great length was when I was eleven years old and I went to Daniel Stewart's Boarding School in Edinburgh. Edinburgh's a beautiful city but it can be very cold, especially after Ceylon. Oh it certainly was. The first couple of years anyway I had to really get adjusted to the to the climatic changes. And at school they developed your swimming, yes? Yes they did. I joined the Warren de Bass Club and through the school

Presenter4:18

And uh through Warringer I I developed my swimming skills.

Presenter4:22

And you won a lot at schools' events. As a schoolboy, what did you want to be?

Presenter4:26

Um I suppose there were many things I wanted to be at first. I think my first

Presenter4:31

Uh job I I wished to be was to become a pilot, but then I grew out of that and I wanted to become a a marine biologist.

Presenter4:39

In 1970, you won a bronze medal for Scotland in the Commonwealth Games. Were you still at school then? Yes, I was.

Presenter4:46

What was your distance in those days?

Presenter4:48

I was doing the the two hundred.

Presenter4:51

200 meters breastrope. Yes.

Speaker 14:52

Yeah.

Presenter4:55

Your favorite strip? Oh yes, throughout the years I've always been better at the two hundred, then the shorter distance to one hundred.

Presenter5:02

Let's break off here for your next record. What is it? Number three is Eric Clapton. It's called Give Me Strength. I read in a magazine that Eric Clapton had been addicted to heroin for four years and I think this record is a plea by him to God to give him strength to fight the addiction of heroin.

David Wilkie5:23

Hello.

David Wilkie5:26

Give one stream.

David Wilkie5:29

Carry on.

David Wilkie5:36

You know

David Wilkie5:39

Give me strength.

Presenter5:51

Eric Clapton, give me strength.

Presenter5:54

He were a bronze medalist at the Commonwealth Games at the age of sixteen.

Presenter5:58

You decided to go for the nineteen seventy two Olympics at Munich, or was it decided for you?

Presenter6:05

Well, I suppose up to then my my father and the schoolmasters had been putting a bit of pressure on me to continue swimming. But after the Commonwealth Games it was my decision to continue swimming to head for the Munich Olympics. So I was a person that was fully, you know, committed myself then. Yes.

Presenter6:24

Olympic coach Frank Thomas wasn't very impressed with you because you weren't good at getting up at five. Thirty in the morning to go swimming at six. Fair comment? Very fair comment. Um I remember Frank

Presenter6:36

Many times he came to the boarding school and many times, you know, David Wilkie didn't go meet them in the car.

David Wilkie6:41

Yeah.

Presenter6:42

For that first Munich Olympic, you you didn't take training all that seriously.

Presenter6:48

No, I didn't. It wasn't until probably three months before Munich that I

Presenter6:52

realized that I had a good chance of uh making the final.

Presenter6:56

And ever since then I took swimming quite seriously. Indeed, you did pretty well. You got a silver medal for the 200-meter breast jerk. Who beat you? It was John Henkin, an American. And you took that rather personally. You decided you wasn't going to do it again. Well, I had decided that the silver medal, I suppose, made me decide that I could go into better things in swimming. And I had made up my mind to continue swimming after that. Even if it meant getting up at 5:30 in the morning. Even if it meant getting up early. You took one major step to make training more pleasant.

Presenter7:30

Yes, uh I I went to the University of Miami where the climatic uh conditions are very, very good for for training and uh in fact we train outdoors uh four hours a day, which is uh much better than training indoors. You had had offers from several American universities. Well obviously Miami is a good place for a swimmer. It's a very big university, isn't it? One of those great sprawling

Speaker 17:48

Well it is great

Presenter7:50

How many students? 18,000 students in Miami and uh most of them are go to uh the campus for all their classes. Um I think there must be probably sixteen thousand students walking around the campus, you know, at one time. That's an enormous place.

Presenter8:05

Now how much training does a world-class swimmer have to do every day?

Presenter8:10

Well we usually

Presenter8:12

At our peak of training we're using the water four hours a day, covering about twelve thousand meters in that time. In a pool. In a pool. Now surely David, it's it's incredibly boring swimming up and down, up and down all those hours. Oh, it certainly is. That's where the the coach comes into training. He's the person that has to keep you

Presenter8:30

Uh amuse all the time, give you different things in in your workouts and uh

Presenter8:35

You know, he has to really mix up the training to keep the person interested in what he is doing. That, of course, is why so many swimmers fall by the wayside, through the sheer grinding monotony and effort of it all. Oh, it certainly is, because, you know, you're you're in a the pool by yourself. There's nobody I mean, you're with other people, but you can't really communicate with them because you're swimming up and down by yourself. And a lot of people just really don't like that, you know, doing that four hours a day every day. And it really does, you know, make

Presenter9:02

Uh a lot of people quit swimming. What about the other aspects of training? You have to presumably

Presenter9:07

Cut out smoking and drinking. You have to be in bed early. What about diet?

Presenter9:12

I'm lucky I have no special diet because I have no real weight problems. Um my weight remains very stable no matter what I do do. I do take a a diet supplement which consists of a a milkshake with many, many additions to it, you know, one banana protein supplement and

Presenter9:28

Sounds delicious.

David Wilkie9:28

Sounds good.

Presenter9:30

Very good. You're the only top class swimmer to wear goggles and helmet. How does that help? Well, it helps me because I can see my competitors. Uh, I can see where they are in the race and uh I can judge my own pace by, you know, whether position they're in. And it also helps me with the turns as well.

Presenter9:47

Let's have record number four. It is uh Love is a Drug by Roxy Musing.

David Wilkie9:54

Ain't no big thing.

David Wilkie9:57

When does the pair you make?

David Wilkie10:01

Change no big thing.

David Wilkie10:04

The toll of the bell.

David Wilkie10:10

I grow bad to spare the day

David Wilkie10:16

See

David Wilkie10:19

What's in store?

Presenter10:21

Love is the drug by Roxy Music.

Presenter10:24

Now at Miami University you used to fly back to join the British team in international events.

Presenter10:30

And very regularly you began to beat world records. First time I believe in Belgrade. Yes, that was the first time I broke my world record and I suppose that was up to then my greatest thrill in swimming and breaking the world record really did mean a lot to me then. And you also began to beat John Henkin.

Presenter10:49

That also was another great thrill in my swimming career. Um John was my main competitor and he has been, you know, for a long, long time and to to beat him was uh very very

Presenter11:00

Good for me.

Presenter11:01

For further highlight

Presenter11:03

In the Commonwealth Games in New Zealand in nineteen seventy four you took two gold medals, despite a back injury, right? That's correct. You were the World European and Commonwealth champion at the two hundred metres breaststroke.

Presenter11:15

You brought two gold medals back with you from the World Swimming Championships in Colombia.

Presenter11:20

But the bigger objective, of course, during the whole four years was Montreal.

Presenter11:25

What about the psychological buildup to a race, David? Can you hate, or is it an ice-cold analytical approach? Which which is better?

Presenter11:35

I think for me it is an approach of not ice cold, but of not really caring about your competition, just pretending that they're there but they don't really exist. I don't think I'm capable of hating somebody that I race against. Especially when I I race against John, you know, it's more of a, you know, get in there and beat him. And I tend to I think we both do this. We tend to ignore each other and pretend each other, you know, we don't exist to each other. Because we have been, you know, I suppose our only competition, you know, since the the Munich Games.

Speaker 111:54

Yeah.

Presenter12:08

The first Montreal event was mild and disastrous. John Mencken beat you in the final of a hundred metres. What went wrong as far as you were concerned?

Presenter12:16

Well, I suppose it was uh the start that really lost me the race. I had a a slow start. Once I got in the water, I came up and I kicked air out of the the start, which uh probably cost me point three of a second there and the race was won by John by point three.

Presenter12:33

And then you beat him fairly easily in the 200 metres. By about four yards? By about four yards. Um well the two hundred has has always been my better distance and I always beaten John in the two hundred more than I have in the hundred. So I was uh looking for a better result in the two hundred. And you got it.

Presenter12:51

So now it's back to the University of Miami. When do you graduate? I'll be graduating in about around December the 15th. Yes, you were reading marine biology, but then you changed after the first year. Yes, I changed to English and communications. Communications, radio and television? Radio and television, that's correct. Are you going to stay in the United States? No, I'll be coming back to this country after I have finished my degree. So very likely we'll be seeing you about the place on BBC premises, perhaps? Probably. I hope so anyway. Let's have another record. What next? Number five is Mandrel. It is called Out With the Boys. The reason I chose this one was because my girlfriend is Kate Curley is always complaining about me being out with the boys. So I suppose it reminds me of her and it's a comical appearance.

Speaker 313:46

We went out last night and I just had such a great time.

Speaker 313:55

Tongue have with the voice Got drunken merits on

Presenter14:02

Mandrel, out with the boys. Let's go straight on to the next disc.

Presenter14:06

Okay, the next disc is Instant Karma by John Lennon. I remember seeing this record being played on top of the pops at boarding school, so it brings back a few pleasant memories of my life at Daniel Schwartz College.

David Wilkie14:21

This is Kam was gonna hit you.

David Wilkie14:24

Talk you're round my head

David Wilkie14:28

You better get yourself together.

David Wilkie14:32

But it's really gonna be dead

David Wilkie14:37

And where are they thinking y'all?

David Wilkie14:41

I'm in the business now.

Presenter14:47

John Lennon, Instant Karma.

Presenter14:49

How are you going to manage on this desert island? Are are you good with your hands?

Presenter14:55

Yes, I am. I tend to like tinkering around with things and I seem to be uh very adventurous with, you know, doing different things and I like to

Presenter15:03

I remember when I was at Bimney I had to uh build a fire by myself and uh

Presenter15:07

Catch some uh conks as we call them there. They're big shells, they have animals living inside them and they're

Speaker 115:10

Conks

Presenter15:15

Molluscs Having had a year of marine biology you should at any rate know which fish are edible.

Presenter15:21

And you could catch'em, if necessary, swim after.

Presenter15:25

Any ideas on escaping?

Presenter15:27

Um if I knew which direction I came from I'd probably try and swim if it wasn't too far away. Uh but otherwise I'd uh

Presenter15:34

Be quite happy to stay on the desert island for at least a couple of months, I think. Right.

Presenter15:39

Disc number seven. Disc number seven is Traffic and it is called Tragic Magic.

Presenter16:14

Tragic Magic by Traffic. And now we come to your last record.

Presenter16:19

The last one is Miles Davis. It is called John McLaughlin. The reason I picked this one was because the roommate I had in Miami was a great Miles Davis fan, so I had to listen to a lot of Miles Davis. And I got used to it eventually by listening to it so much.

Presenter17:07

John McLaughlin by Miles Davis. If you could take just one discard of your eight, which would it be? I'd have taken the one we just played, John McLaughlin by Miles Davis, the reason being that it's a record that does take some time to get used to, and it also is a good musical record where there are many, many different instruments playing. It is interesting just to, you know, find out which instrument is playing this and which instrument is playing that.

Presenter17:33

One luxury to take to the island with you. What would you like? Well, I've decided to take a painting set with me. I haven't had much time to do a bit of painting, so uh

Presenter17:41

In my spare time on the island I'd uh

Presenter17:44

I'd like to do a bit of painting. And one book apart from the Bible and Shakespeare and big encyclopedia. The book I'm taking is a dictionary, uh the English to Spanish dictionary, so while I'm on the island I can learn a lot of English words and also translate them into Spanish, so uh I won't be wasting my time for the fascinate you?

Speaker 118:01

Why is initially

Presenter18:03

Well, I have spent the last four years in Miami where there are a lot of Cuban people and just speaking with them is giving me an interest in the language. Good.

Presenter18:14

Thank you, David Wilkie, for letting us hear your Desert Island Discs. And thank you, too. Goodbye, everyone.

Speaker 118:29

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk/slash radio four.