Ashley Fogel

Ashley Fogel, born in 1954, represented New Zealand in swimming at the 1974 Christchurch Commonwealth Games and later played water polo for New Zealand.

Fogel grew up in Karori, Wellington, attending Karori Normal School and Scots College.

He began swimming at the outdoor Karori pool and joined the club there, coming under the coaching tuition of John Hamilton, Tony Keenan and Bill Robertson.

Seeking to reach higher honours in swimming, he moved to Otago in 1973 to train under Duncan Laing at the Moana pool. “I wasn’t tough enough; I wasn’t doing enough training. But that changed once I got to Dunedin and I got the results almost immediately, winning two national titles at the 1973 national champs.”

At Christchurch, Fogel swam in the 200m and 400m individual medley.

In the 200m, he swam 2min 19.84s which placed him 11th overall, just outside a place in the final. In the 400m, his heat time of 4min 56.16s placed him 13th, again outside the final. He was up with the pace until the third leg, the breaststroke, when he fell back. ‘I was always weaker in the breaststroke, and got found out there. I was strong in butterfly and backstroke, but had to build up a good lead before the breaststroke.’

In the 4 x 100m freestyle relay, the New Zealand team of John Coutts, Michael Johnston, Fogel and Brett Naylor recorded 3min 45.76s, which placed them 5th.

‘I was 18 by then and didn’t have the endurance training background of some of the others; I’d come into it quite late at the top level.’

Fogel won three national swimming titles – the 200m individual medley in 1973 and 1974, and the 400m individual medley in 1973.

‘I trained the year after the Games, but my heart wasn’t in it any longer. I got glandular fever, which set me back. When I didn’t qualify for the world champs in Colombia, I felt It was time do have a look round overseas and to get into a career.’

Fogel travelled to Montreal to watch the 1976 Olympics and was heading to London when he got the shocking news that his brother had died. That changed his life. He returned home to support his parents and to help them run the family clothing business.

He continued with water polo, representing New Zealand in the late 1970s and early 1980s, playing Olympic and World Cup qualifiers, and being part of the champion Maranui team.

But the clothing business claimed ever more of his time. He eventually bought the family business and with his wife Wende, ran it very successfully, launching the Ashley Fogel womenswear brand in 1991. They moved their base to Miramar, where at its peak the business employed 55 people.

It got much tougher to run a clothing business into the 2000s with high rents and increased competition from internet shopping. Fogel closed the business in 2012, which signalled the end of 40 years in the clothing business for him.

He’d suffered a heart attack and undergone double bypass surgery that year, which caused a reassessment of his life.

So he changed careers, getting his real estate licence at 61 and moving to Waiheke Island for seven years. These days Fogel lives in Queenstown, where he has continued to work in real estate.