Pat McCormick (1930-present) is the first diver to win four gold medals and now dedicates her life to inspiring young people everywhere.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan, and this is Encyclopedia Womannica.
Today’s Olympian is known as one of the most determined divers in history. The first diver to win four gold medals, , she now dedicates her life to inspiring young people everywhere. Let’s talk about Pat McCormick.
Pat was born May 12, 1930 in Seal Beach, California. She was one of three siblings, and spent much of her childhood performing bold stunts: like cannonballing off a nearby bridge.
Pat honed her swimming and diving skills at the local YWCA. To afford bus fare to and from the pool, Pat performed odd jobs around town like mowing lawns, cleaning houses, and ironing clothes. In 1947, a coach from the Los Angeles Athletic Club named Aileen Allen spotted Pat and invited her to train professionally. Pat accepted the offer and so began her lifelong dedication to diving.
Pat’s childhood daredevil self showed in her professional diving. After acclimating to the 10-meter diving platform, she soon started practicing advanced dives that only men were doing at the time. She became the first diver to perform a double somersault with a double twist. Pat’s dedication pushed all the athletes around her to train harder, too.
In 1948, Pat missed qualifying for the Olympic team by a tenth of a point. Though she felt crushed by the failure, she was motivated to try even harder to realize her dream. Pat practiced 80 to 100 dives a day, 6 days a week, until the next Olympics rolled around. Today, high divers practice in harnesses that protect them from harsh impact with the water in the event of a mistake. But Pat had to practice with no aids. She wore t-shirts over her swimsuit to reduce the number of welts she got from hitting the water.
In 1949, Patt married Glenn “Mick” McCormick, a college wrestler and gymnast who would also serve as her coach. With him in her corner, Pat soon became nearly unbeatable. At the 1950 Amateur Athletic Union, she won all three championship titles. Still, her eyes on her true goal: the Olympics.
Six weeks before the 1952 Olympics, Pat participated in an exhibition where she dove into a pool that was much shallower than she expected. It was 9 feet deep instead of the usual 17 feet. Her head crashed against the bottom of the pool and she wound up needing 50 stitches. But she refused to let that stop her from qualifying for the Olympics. At the Olympic qualifiers, she attached a sponge to her head to protect her stitches and proceeded to dive. She succeeded, and qualified for the Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. There she brought home two gold medals: one in platform diving, and one in the springboard diving.
Before the following Olympic Games in 1956, Pat got pregnant. Again, she didn’t let anything stop her from attempting to qualify. Despite missing months of training before delivering her son, Pat qualified for the Olympics once again and traveled to Melbourne, Australia.
For the second time, Pat won two gold medals in the same two categories. This made her the first Olympic diver to win four gold medals. Few others have since achieved that honor.
Pat retired from her diving career on that high note, though she continued to participate in exhibitions,, and made appearances with other Olympic champions. After Pat gave birth to her second child in 1960, her marriage became strained. In part due to her international fame, Pat and Glenn divorced in 1973.
Since the end of her competitive diving, Pat dedicates her time to children in sports and education. In 1984, she was invited to serve on the Olympic organizing committee. She agreed to participate as long as she would also be able to travel around the country speaking in schools. She founded the Pat McCormick Educational Foundation, a nonprofit that works with at-risk kids, to encourage them to pursue their dreams, stay healthy, and help those in need.
Pat’s connection to the world of diving lived on in her daughter, Kelly. A fellow Olympian, Kelly won a silver medal in the 1984 Olympics and a bronze medal in 1988.
In addition to her Olympic golds, over the course of Pat’s career, Pat won: 27 national championships, three gold medals at the Pan American Games, the 1956 Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year Award, and the 1956 James E. Sullivan Amateur Athlete of the Year. Her incredible determination has inspired others around the world.
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