Patricia McCormick Biography - Raised Around Water, Determined To Succeed, The Double-double, Sharing The Olympic Spirit
diver woman
1930-
American diver
Women divers gained popularity in the years before World War I, as much for their attractiveness as for their skill. Until Pat McCormick entered the scene in the late 1940s, displaying remarkable agility and toughness, no one dominated the sport. The first and only woman diver to win two gold medals in two consecutive Olympic Games (the double-double), McCormick earned the prestigious Sullivan Award in 1956 as the nation's top amateur athlete and became the first woman diver inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame. She belongs among the greatest names in Olympic history.
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Pat McCormick was born Patricia Keller in Seal Beach, California, on May 12, 1930. Living above a grocery store and with little money in the family, she and her two older brothers were raised mostly by their mother, a nurse. Her alcoholic father was a sporadic presence in her life, although his belief in her was an important influence. In a 1999 interview with Dr. Margaret Costa for the Amateur At…
Robert Condon, in his book Great Women Athletes of the 20th Century, quoted McCormick as saying, "That defeat was the greatest thing that ever happened to me because all of a sudden I knew I could win the Olympics… I realized that at Los Angeles I was working with world-class athletes every day." She married Glenn McCormick in 1949 and started competing under her married name.…
McCormick's persistence paid off while combating another opponent: life after the Olympics. In a profile issued by the World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame in 1996, McCormick recalled the empty feeling that can hit athletes once Olympic glory fades: "You see, all our lives we have had someone to tell us what to do, how to do it. Then, your whole life dissolves into that one moment.…
Condon, Robert J. Great Women Athletes of the 20th Century. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., 1991. Day, Mary. "McCormick Did It Before Louganis." Los Angeles Times [San Diego County Edition] (October 22, 1988): 3. Hicks, Jerry. "McCormick Has the Gold-Medal Touch as a Speaker Too." Los Angeles Times [Orange County Edition] (September 19, 1996): 1. Stump,…
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