Donna de Varona

Donna de Varona

Personal information
Full name	Donna Elizabeth DeVarona
Nickname(s)	"Liz"
Nationality	United States
Born	(1947-04-26) April 26, 1947 San Diego, California
Height	5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)
Weight	134 lb (61 kg)
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Stroke(s)	Freestyle, individual medley
Club	Santa Clara Swim Club
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 an American former competition swimmer, Olympic gold medalist, former world record-holder, and television sportscaster.

Biography

Donna de Varona currently serves on the executive board of Special Olympics International and is a member of the International Olympic Committee Women and Sports Commission. She is also a member of the International Fair Play Committee, Chairman of the International Swimming Hall of Fame and most recently was appointed to the United States Department of State's empowerment of girls and women through sports council, additionally she is an ambassador for Tony Blair’s Beyond Sport initiative. She is President of DAMAR Productions, a marketing, consulting and events advisory company.

Swimming career

In 1960, at age 13, Donna qualified for her first U.S. Olympic swimming team. She already held the world record in the 400-meter individual medley, her signature event, but the event would not be added to the Olympic schedule until the 1964 Olympics. At the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy, she swam for the gold medal-winning U.S. team in the preliminary heats of the women's 4x100 freestyle relay, but did not receive a medal because she did not swim in the event final. Four years later at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, after she was well on her way to setting a career total of eighteen world best times and world records she won the gold medal in the women's 400-meter individual medley, besting her competition by a margin of six seconds and setting an Olympic record. She also earned a second gold medal as a member of the world-record-setting U.S. team in the women's 4x100-meter freestyle relay.

In 1964 after having graced the covers of Sports Illustrated, Look and Life magazines, the Associated Press and United Press International voted de Varona the "Most Outstanding Woman Athlete in the World." However, because women were offered few sports opportunities in American high schools or colleges in the early 1960s, de Varona retired from her sport and began her career in the male-dominated world of sports broadcasting.

Professional life

At the age of 17, she appeared on ABC's Wide World of Sports, becoming the youngest and one of the first women sportscasters for a national network. Her groundbreaking career has earned her an Emmy, two Gracies and the opportunity to cover a wide variety of sports events including 17 winter and summer Olympic games. In 2006, she was inducted into the Museum of Television & Radio's first class of fifty "She Made It" pioneers in media.

While de Varona continued to pursue her television career she also began her work in Washington D.C. as an activist for sports and fitness opportunities for Americas youth. Since 1965 she has served five terms on the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports and has been appointed to Presidential commissions under Presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan, Clinton and Bush. A consultant to the United States Senate, de Varona took a leave of absence from her pioneering television career to help with the passage of the 1978 Amateur Sports Act which restructured how Olympic sports are governed in the United States. Subsequently she was called back to the Senate to consultant on amendments to the landmark Olympic legislation. Additionally Ms. de Varona worked to promote and safe guard Title 1X of the Equal Education Amendments Act which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any educational institution receiving Federal funding. Named a special advisor to President Clinton’s Drug Czar, General Barry McCaffrey, de Varona helped with the establishment and funding for both the United States anti-doping agency and the World Anti-Doping Agency which are entrusted with eradicating the use of illegal substances to enhance performance in sport.

A promoter of women in sport, in the mid 1970s, she joined Billie Jean King in establishing the The Women's Sport Foundation. She served as the first President (1979-1984) and subsequently the Chairman and Honorary Trustee for the Women's Sports Foundation. Under de Varona's leadership, the Foundation initiated the Hall of Fame Dinner (now the Annual Salute to Women in Sports Awards Dinner), Travel and Training Grants, research projects, a toll-free telephone number and annual visits to Washington, D.C., to educate Congress about Title IX and the importance of providing sport and physical activity opportunities on an equitable basis. Over the years the foundation has raised more than $30 million dollars to support it’s programs.

From 1997 to 1999, de Varona chaired the organizing committee for the Women’s World Cup Soccer tournament. Recognized as the most successful women's sporting event in history de Varona, a U.S. Olympic Hall of Famer, is a recipient of the Olympic Order, the highest honor presented by the International Olympic Committee. In 2003, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Honors Committee awarded her the Theodore Roosevelt Award. In 1999, Sports Illustrated for Women ranked her on its list of the "100 Greatest Athletes." She has also been awarded five honorary doctorates.

De Varona is a special advisor to Jordan’s Prince Feisal and is helping him launch his Generations for Peace through Sport initiative. In the fall of 2007 in observation of the 35th anniversary of title IX, the law that outlawed discrimination in school programs including sports, she completed a documentary as a host, writer and producer. The CSTV documentary, which won a Cine Golden Eagle Award, focused on the impact of Title nine and how one recipient of a sports scholarship in America has been influential in changing attitudes and customs in the Middle East as well as within the International Olympic Committee. The program featured Morocco's Minister of Sport, Nawal El Moutawakel, who in 1984 became the first Muslim and African woman to win an Olympic gold medal and in 2012 was elected Vice President of the International Olympic Committee.

On October 4, 2004, de Varona was inducted into the Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York. She also serves on the distinguished Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee (CSAC), which recommends the subjects to appear on U.S. postage stamps. She is a 1986 graduate of UCLA and the mother of two children Joanna Pinto and John David Pinto.

De Varona serves on the Executive Board of Special Olympics International and is a member of the International Olympic Committee's Women and Sports Commission. She is also chairman of the International Swimming Hall of Fame and also serves as an adviser to Jordan's Prince Feisal's Generations for Peace foundation and Tony Blair’s Beyond Sport initiative. Most recently Ms. de Varona was appointed to the United States Department of State's empowerment of girls and women through sports council by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She is President of DAMAR Productions, a marketing, consulting and events advisory company.

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.

See also

• List of Olympic medalists in swimming (women)
• List of University of California, Los Angeles people
• World record progression 200 metres individual medley
• World record progression 400 metres individual medley
• World record progression 4 × 100 metres medley relay

External links

• Donna de Varona – Olympic athlete profile at Sports-Reference.com
• Donna de Varona – Women of the Hall profile at National Women's Hall of Fame
• Donna de Varona (USA) – Honor Swimmer profile at International Swimming Hall of Fame

Records
Preceded by Sylvia Ruuska	Women's 200-meter individual medley world record-holder (long course) May 13, 1961 – July 22, 1966	Succeeded by Lynn Vidali
Preceded by Sylvia Ruuska	Women's 400-meter individual medley world record-holder (long course) July 15, 1960 – July 26, 1962	Succeeded by Sharon Finneran
Preceded by Sharon Finneran	Women's 400-meter individual medley world record-holder (long course) July 26, 1962	Succeeded by Sharon Finneran
Preceded by Sharon Finneran	Women's 400-meter 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