Katherine Rawls

Katherine Rawls
Personal information
Surname:	Katherine Louise Rawls
Nickname (s):	"Katy," "The Minnow"
Nationality:	United States
Discipline (s) :	Art, diving, swimming.
Society:	Miami Beach Swimming Club
Birthday:	June 14, 1917
Place of birth:	Nashville , Tennessee
Date of death:	April 8, 1982
Place of death:	White Sulfur Springs , West Virginia

Katherine Louise Rawls (born June 14, 1917 in Nashville , Tennessee , † April 8, 1982 in White Sulfur Springs , West Virginia ) was an American swimmer and diver .

Career

Rawls was born in Nashville , Tennessee . She was introduced to water sports at an early age, learned to swim at the age of 2 and to dive at the age of 7. She and her sisters Dorothy and Evelyn, who were also successful athletes, came to be known as the "Rawls' Diving Trio". Her sister Peggy and her brother Sonny were also able to achieve sporting success.

Rawl caused a sensation at the national swimming championships in 1931 when, at the age of only 14, she was able to defeat Eleanor Holm over 300 meters in a new world record time and win gold. After moving to Fort Lauderdale and a sponsorship by the city of Miami , with which she was therefore often mistakenly associated, she took part in the qualifying competitions for the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Here she surprisingly failed to qualify for the Olympics after her trainer had instructed her to save energy and thus finish on the last qualification rank 3, whereby she only finished fourth. Immediately after this defeat, she took part in the jumping competitions and sensationally qualified for the games before Georgia Coleman . At the Olympic Games she finished second behind the same Coleman and thus won the silver medal.

At the national championships in September 1932, Rawls was able to beat Coleman again. She won a total of 4 national titles at this event, which was the maximum at this event at the time.

In the following years she took part in various competitions with great success. The New York Times even declared her a favorite in up to seven of the nine competitions in 1935, depending on which one she would take part in. Her favorite disciplines were swimming medley and distance competitions. However, both were not Olympic at the time. However, she qualified for the 100 meter freestyle and was seventh in the singles at the Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936 and won bronze with the women's relay. She also qualified again for the jumping competitions from the 3-meter board, where she was surprisingly defeated in the last jump by the only 13-year-old Marjorie Gestring . As a result, she concentrated more on swimming than on jumping.

In 1937, only hours after arriving in San Francisco after a tour from Japan, she started at the national championships and won a total of 4 outstanding titles in the following days. For this she was later by the Associated Press for Sportswoman of the Year nominated and finished third in the vote for James E. Sullivan Award . In 1938 she was able to defend all of her four national titles. At this point she held 18 national records and had been unbeaten in swimming medley for 8 years.

Rawls resigned from swimming in 1939 after the Helsinki Games were canceled due to the war. But in 1948 she took part again in the national qualifications, could not qualify for the games in London.

Rawls was able to achieve a total of 33 national titles in swimming and diving in her career, making him one of the most successful athletes in these competitions.

Further life

In November 1937, Rawls' parents announced their engagement to William Starr. On May 18, 1938, however, she married the pilot Theodore H. Thompson without her mother's knowledge . She then started working at the Thompson School of Aviation. She had obtained her pilot's license while still active as a swimmer. Rawls was one of the first women pilots in the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron to transport aircraft and equipment to Europe during World War II.

Her husband is said to have filed for divorce in 1943, but withdrew this application because it was a "misunderstanding". Rawls works as a swimming instructor at the Greenbrier Hotel in White Sulfur Springs for another 20 years.

In 1965, she was one of the first to be inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame . Rawls died of cancer in 1982 after long years of illness.

See also

• List of medalists in swimming at Olympic Games

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} KATHERINE RAWLS (USA) 1965 Honor Swimmer / Diver . International Swimming Hall of Fame. 1965. Retrieved December 13, 2017.
2. ↑ Associated Press : MISS RAWLS TAKES FOURTH SWIM TITLE . In: New York Times , September 11, 1932, p. S2. "ALSO WINS IN 10-FOOT DIVE Scores 94.40 to Beat Miss Poynton, Olympic Champion" 
3. ^ Females in Water . In: Time , April 22, 1935. Retrieved September 7, 2007. "This year she decided not to defend her diving championship, to try for a clean sweep in four swimming events, the most any contestant is allowed to enter ... The three she won were 100 yd. freestyle, 300 yd. medley, 100 yd. breaststroke ... The one she lost was the 220-yd. freestyle " 
4. ↑ MISS RAWLS TOPS WOMEN ATHLETES; But Swimmer, With 53, Gains Only One-Point Margin in Associated Press Poll. December 15, 1937, accessed November 12, 2019 . 
5. ^ Third Place to Miss Rawls, Swimmer. New York Times, December 31, 1937; accessed November 12, 2019 . 
6. ↑ Olympic trial results. USA Swimming, accessed November 12, 2019 . 
7. ↑ KATHERINE RAWLS'S TROTH . In: New York Times , November 22, 1937, p. 16. "Swimming Star to Be Bride of William Starr of Florida" 
8. ↑ KATHERINE RAWLS WED . In: New York Times , May 22, 1938, p. 40. “Swimming Star Becomes Bride of TH Thompson, Aviator ... Mrs. WJ Rawls, the swimmer's mother, said that Katherine told her of the marriage by long distance telephone. "