Before there was Claudia Fragapane, there was Joyce Cooper.

Cooper was the first Englishwoman to win four golds at a single Commonwealth Games, doing so at the inaugural British Empire Games in 1930.

The mother of two has been inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame for her exploits as a pioneering woman in sport.

On International Women’s Day 2025, read more about her story.

Born Margaret Joyce Cooper in 1909 in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, the swimmer was the daughter of a wealthy tea plantation owner.

Having learnt to swim in the sea off Bognor Regis when her family moved to England, Cooper took her sport to the next level by joining Mermaid Swimming Club.

She rose through the ranks to triumph at the Amateur Swimming Association Championships, now known as the Aquatics GB Swimming Championships in 1927 for the first of her 19 national titles.

Her international debut came aged 18 in 1927 at the European Championships in Bologna as women’s events were held for the first time.

Cooper was responsible for two of Great Britain’s four medals at that championships as she won gold in the 4x100m freestyle relay before having to settle for silver in the 100m freestyle.

She finished in a dead heat with Maria Vierdag of the Netherlands in a time of 1:15:00 but Cooper was not well enough to compete in a swim-off and Vierdag was crowned champion.

Her Olympic debut followed a year later, winning three medals across freestyle and backstroke events.

Cooper took home silver in the 4x100m freestyle relay, also claiming bronzes in the 100m freestyle and the 100m backstroke.

Two years later, the Commonwealth Games were born with the first edition taking place in Hamilton, Canada.

Swimming and diving were the only sports women were able to compete in and Cooper did not waste her chance to show what women could do.

Of the five swimming events for women, Cooper won gold medals in four of them, with three individual titles and one relay gold.

Her feat of four gold medals would not be matched by an Englishwoman until gymnast Fragapane's at Glasgow 2014.

Later that year, while on a tour of the USA, Cooper broke her first world record, doing so again at the 1932 Olympic Games in LA. 

The Games saw her win bronze in the relay, also reaching the finals of the 100m backstroke, achieving all of this while under instructions from doctors to have appendix surgery. 

Cooper retired from swimming prior to the 1934 British Empire Games in London. 

In that year, she married Olympic rowing champion Felix Badcock, with whom she had two sons, both of whom were successful rowers. 

Her elder son Felix claimed bronze at the 1958 British Empire Games as part of the men’s eight. 

His younger brother Francis was a reserve for that crew in 1958 but did compete in the 1958 Boat Race for Oxford. 

Cooper funded her swimming by working as a tailor and also taught ballroom dancing while also working to professionalise the running of swimming in Britain. 

She was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1996 and passed away in 2002 at the age of 93.