Helen Meany

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Helen Meany

Helen Meany (born December 15, 1904 in New York City , † July 21, 1991 in Greenwich , Connecticut ) was an American diver . She took part in three Olympic Games and won gold once.

Life

Helen Meany was the oldest of eleven children of William S. Meany and his wife Josephine Sullivan. Her father, who worked for the banker and yacht skipper Elias Cornelius Benedict (1834–1920), was a passionate swimmer and taught his children to swim at an early age. Helen Meany and her family came to Greenwich as a baby in 1905.

Sports career

At the age of 15 she took part in the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp . She started the competition from the tower, but could not survive the first round. Four years later, Meany started at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris , where she started again in the diving competition. She took fifth place there. In 1928 Helen Meany started at the Summer Olympics in Amsterdam . This time she took part in the competition from the three-meter board. In it she won the gold medal in front of her two compatriots Dorothy Poynton and Georgia Coleman .

Meany competed for the Women's Swimming Association and won 13 Amateur Athletic Union titles . Her amateur career ended after appearing in a water sports show with Martha Norelius , Pete Desjardins and Johnny Weissmuller .

In 1971 she was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame .

Private

Helen Meany became engaged in April 1930 to the manager and broker Harry Russell Balfe junior (1891-1965), son of Harry Balfe , whom she married in September of that year. The marriage was divorced in early 1933. For some time she went to the Red Cross for India , where it during World War II stationed there US Army - Major met Harwell James Gravis (1905-1957), whom she married 1945th She lived with him in San Antonio , Texas until his death . In 1958 she returned to Greenwich.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Notable Residents of the Greenwich Waterfront Community ; in: Karen Jewell: A History of the Greenwich Waterfront: Tod's Point, Great Captain Island and the Greenwich , The History Press 2011. Chap. 12.
  2. ^ Helen Meany (USA) - 1971 Honor Diver , International Swimming Hall of Fame.
  3. ↑ Engaged , The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 9, 1930. p. 12.
  4. ↑ Helen Meany Balfe, noted diver, granted Divorce , The Lewiston Daily Sun, February 4, 1933.
  5. ↑ Harwell James Gravis , Find A Grave .
  6. ^ Helen Meany Gravis, A Greenwich Olympian , The Oral History Project, March 7, 2014.
personal data
SURNAME Meany, Helen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gravis, Helen; Balfe, Helen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American diver
DATE OF BIRTH December 15, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH July 21, 1991
Place of death Greenwich (Connecticut)