Velma Dunn

Velma Dunn
Personal information
Surname:	Velma Clancy Dunn
Nationality:	United States
Discipline (s) :	Art, diving
Birthday:	October 9, 1918
Place of birth:	Monrovia , California
Date of death:	May 8, 2007
Place of death:	Whittier , California

Velma Clancy Dunn (born October 9, 1918 in Monrovia , California , † May 8, 2007 in Whittier , California) was an American diver .

Career

Velma Dunn was born in Monrovia , California . In her youth she started diving at the Pasadena Athletic Club. Attending the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles made her take part in jumping competitions run by the Amateur Athletic Union for the Los Angeles Athletic Club . There she won the national youth title in 1935 and qualified for the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin . There she was only defeated by Dorothy Poynton and won the silver medal at the age of only 17.

Like her mother, Dunn began training to be a teacher. After she was informed there that their sport was not considered “ladylike”, she did not take part in competitions for two years. With a view to the Olympic Games in 1940 , she resumed the sport after graduating with a bachelor's degree, but the Games were canceled because of the Second World War.

In 1943 she married her husband, who, like her, was a PE teacher at Huntington Park High School and whom she had met there. Together they went to San Pedro, where her husband was stationed towards the end of the war and he gave swimming lessons for the army. Velma Dunn herself also taught various water sports here.

Velma Dunn, who worked as a teacher until 1980, not only supported the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles in her later life but also took part in the torch relays for the 1996, 2000 and 2002 Games. She died on May 8, 2007 after a stroke at the age of 88.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Velma Dunn. Retrieved November 13, 2019 . 
2. ↑ Velma Dunn Ploessel, 88; Olympic diving medalist, PE instructor. Retrieved November 13, 2019 . 
3. ↑ Velma Dunn Biography. Retrieved November 13, 2019 .