Pat McCormick, who turned the primary diver to comb the 3-meter and 10-meter occasions at consecutive Olympics, has died. She was 92.
She died Tuesday of pure causes at an assisted dwelling facility within the Orange County metropolis of Santa Ana, her son, Tim, mentioned.
McCormick gained the springboard and platform occasions on the 1952 Helsinki Video games. She completed the feat once more 4 years later on the Melbourne Video games. Tim McCormick was born simply 5 months earlier than the Olympics in Australia.
Greg Louganis equaled McCormick’s accomplishment when he swept the 3-meter and 10-meter titles on the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and once more in 1988 at Seoul.
McCormick’s daughter, Kelly Robertson, competed on the identical Olympic groups as Louganis.
She gained a silver medal on springboard in 1984 and a bronze in the identical occasion in 1988.
Pat McCormick gained the James Sullivan Award because the nation’s prime novice athlete in 1956, the second lady to take action.
Born Patricia Joan Keller on Might 12, 1930, in Seal Seashore, California, as a teenager she was recognized for executing dives that weren’t allowed in competitors whereas practising off a bridge.
“She was good at every part she did,” Kelly Robertson mentioned. “She wasn’t afraid of something. She was tremendous robust.” McCormick gained 26 U.S. nationwide titles, second all-time amongst American ladies, from 1946-56. She was undefeated at nationwide championship meets in 1951 and 1954, successful all 10 titles accessible to ladies in these two years.
She gained gold on platform and silver on 3-meter on the 1951 Pan American Video games, and she or he adopted up with gold on each occasions on the 1955 occasion.
McCormick was inducted into the Worldwide Swimming Corridor of Fame.
She was educated in Lengthy Seashore, attending Woodrow Wilson Excessive, Lengthy Seashore Metropolis Faculty and Cal State Lengthy Seashore.
After her Olympic profession ended, McCormick did diving excursions and modeled for Catalina swimwear. She appeared on the sport exhibits “To Inform the Fact” and “You Guess Your Life” within the Fifties.
She served on the organizing committee for the 1984 Los Angeles Video games and began the Pat McCormick Academic Basis in 2010.
McCormick was an adventurer who climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, traveled down the Amazon River, skied in Switzerland, physique surfed, competed in horse leaping and acquired her pilot’s license.
“Her life was so fantastic,” Tim McCormick mentioned. “She was fairly a spitfire. She lived her life to the fullest her means.” McCormick’s former husband, Glenn, was a diving coach and a pilot who flew them to Hawaii.
“They’d go spearfishing and she or he would come out with two or three fish stuffed in her go well with,” Kelly Robertson recalled. “She was a visit.” Amongst McCormick’s guests in her ultimate days was four-time Olympic swimming champion John Nabor, her son mentioned.
In addition to her son and daughter, McCormick is survived by six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. She and her husband divorced after 24 years and he died in 1995. In keeping with her needs, McCormick was cremated and her ashes will likely be scattered at sea, her son mentioned.