Patricia McCormick

Patricia McCormick
Personal information
Surname:	Patricia Joan McCormick
Nationality:	United States
Birthday:	12th May 1930 (age 90)
Place of birth:	Seal Beach , California

Patricia Joan McCormick (* 12. May 1930 in Seal Beach , California as Patricia Joan Keller ) is a former American Water jumper . As the only female diver to date, she was able to win both artificial diving and high diving at two consecutive Olympic Games.

In 1948 she narrowly missed qualifying for the Olympic Games in London at the US Trials . There, the US jumper Victoria Draves became the first woman to win both artificial jumping and high diving.

In 1949 Patricia Keller married her trainer Glenn McCormick, a trained aircraft engineer. Also in 1949, she won her first US diving title. After winning all three outdoor titles (high diving, artificial jumping and 1-meter board) in 1950, she was the first to win five championship titles in the same year in 1951, two indoor titles and three outdoor titles. At the Pan American Games in Buenos Aires in 1951 , she won in diving and was second in artificial diving.

She won her first Olympic medals at the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki. In jumping she won with 7.9 points ahead of the French Mady Moreau ; from the tower she won with 7.5 points ahead of her compatriot Paula Myers , Juno Irwin completed the triumph of the US jumpers as third.

In 1955 she won gold from the board and from the tower at the Pan American Games in Mexico City. Their son was born in the spring of 1956. In December 1956, she entered the Olympic Games in Melbourne. In jumping she won with a 16.4 point lead over her compatriot Jeanne Stunyo . In diving she won 3.2 points ahead of Juno Irwin and Paula Myers, who were able to repeat the triple success of 1952. That same year, McCormick was honored with the Associated Press' Athlete of the Year award .

In total, Patricia McCormick won four Olympic gold medals, three gold and two silver at the Pan American Games and 27 national championship titles. Her daughter Kelly McCormick won two Olympic medals in the 1980s. In 1965, the year it opened, it was inducted into the International Swimming Sports Hall of Fame .

literature

• Volker Kluge : Summer Olympic Games. The Chronicle II. London 1948 - Tokyo 1964. Sportverlag Berlin, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-328-00740-7 .
• Bill Mallon and Ian Buchanan: Quest for Gold . New York City 1984, ISBN 0-88011-217-4 .

Web links

• Patricia McCormick in the International Swimming Hall of Fame (English)
• Patricia McCormick in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )