Winifred Griffin


Winifred Clare "Winkie" Ashby was a New Zealand freestyle swimmer. At the 1950 British Empire Games she won the silver medal as part of the 4 x 110 yards freestyle relay. She was also a member of the New Zealand 3 x 100 yards medley relay team that was disqualified. Individually she placed fourth in the 440 yards freestyle and sixth in the 110 yards freestyle. She also competed in the 440 and 110 yards freestyle at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games.
Her only Olympic Games appearance was in 1956 at Melbourne where she swam 100 m and 400 m freestyle, and was eliminated in the heats.
Griffin won nine New Zealand national swimming titles: the 220 yards freestyle in 1951, 1953 and 1955; and the 440 yards freestyle in 1951, 1953, 1954, 1955, and 1957.
She was married to rower Kerry Ashby, who died in 2015. Winifred Ashby died of cancer on the Hibiscus Coast, north of Auckland, on 11 December 2018.