Donna de Varona

Donna de Varona

Personal information
Full name	Donna Elizabeth DeVarona
Nickname(s)	Liz
Nationality	United States
Born	April 26, 1947 (1947-04-26) San Diego, California, U.S.
Height	1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Stroke(s)	Freestyle and Medley
Club	Santa Clara Swim Club
College team	UCLA
Medal record Women's swimming Competitor for the United States Olympic Games Gold 1964 Tokyo 400 m individual medley Gold 1964 Tokyo 4x100 m freestyle Pan American Games Gold 1963 São Paulo 4x100 m freestyle Gold 1963 São Paulo 4x100 m medley

Donna Elizabeth de Varona (born April 26, 1947) is a former American swimmer.

Biography

Swimming career

De Varona was the youngest swimmer to compete at the 1960 Summer Olympics. In the following Olympics, she won gold medals in the 400-meter individual medley and as a member of the 400-meter freestyle relay. In her career, she set 18 swimming records after retiring shortly after the 1964 Olympics. Despite her Olympic medals, she was unable to obtain a swimming scholarship to attend college as they did not exist for women at that time.^{[citation needed]} She trained under George Haines at the Santa Clara Swim Club.

ABC Sports career

In 1965, aged 18, she signed a contract with ABC, which made her one of the first female sportscasters in television history. She served as Late night host of both the 1984 Winter Olympics and the 1984 Summer Olympics. She anchored the Los Angeles Olympics with Jim Lampley and served as both a play-by-play announcer for Synchronized Swimming and as a color analyst for Swimming in the women's category.

She also served as a correspondent for the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. In addition, she was a political activist in favor of the Title IX entitlement program. She helped to establish the Women's Sports Foundation, where she served as their first president from 1976-84.

Personal life

De Varona was born in San Diego, California. She graduated in 1986 from UCLA.

Her younger sister is actress/director Joanna Kerns, who played Maggie Seaver on the ABC sitcom Growing Pains.

External links

• Biography from the National Women's Hall of Fame
• sports-reference

Records
Preceded by Sylvia Ruuska	Women's 200 metre individual medley world record holder (long course) May 13, 1961 – July 22, 1966	Succeeded by Lynn Vidali
Preceded by Sylvia Ruuska	Women's 400 metre individual medley world record holder (long course) July 15, 1960 – July 26, 1962	Succeeded by Sharon Finneran
Preceded by Sharon Finneran	Women's 400 metre individual medley world record holder (long course) July 26, 1962	Succeeded by Sharon Finneran
Preceded by Sharon Finneran	Women's 400 metre individual medley world record holder (long course) March 10, 1964 – July 9, 1967	Succeeded by Claudia Kolb
Awards
Preceded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver	Theodore Roosevelt Award (NCAA) 2003	Succeeded by Alan Page
Preceded by Mary Lou Retton	Flo Hyman Memorial Award 1996	Succeeded by Billie Jean King