Ann Curtis
San Francisco, California | ||||||||||||||||||
Died | June 26, 2012 San Rafael, California | (aged 86)|||||||||||||||||
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Height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) | |||||||||||||||||
Sport | ||||||||||||||||||
Sport | Swimming | |||||||||||||||||
Strokes | Freestyle | |||||||||||||||||
Club | Crystal Plunge | |||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Ann Cuneo (March 6, 1926 – June 26, 2012) was an American competition swimmer and two-time Olympic champion.
Ann Elisabeth Curtis was born in
Curtis competed at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, England, winning a medal in every freestyle swimming race in which women were allowed to enter at the time.[4] She won her first gold medal in the women's 400-meter freestyle, setting an Olympic record on the way to winning by a margin of nearly four seconds. In her next race, she received the silver medal for her second-place finish in the women's 100-meter freestyle, a disappointing finish for her. She would later say she felt like she "had let down the world."[2]
However, her favorite moment of the Games came during the third event, when she won her second gold medal as a member of the women's 4×100-meter freestyle relay team.[2] The United States was not favored to win, in part because she had placed second in the 100-meter individual event. When she took the water for the anchor leg in the relay, the United States team was in third place; she passed Johanna "Hannie" Termeulen of Holland and then Fritze Carstensen of Denmark to win the gold medal for the US by four-tenths of a second, setting another Olympic record in the process.[2] When she returned to San Francisco, she was honored in a parade along Market Street.[5]
During her career she set five world and 56 U.S. records.[4] By the time she swam at the 1948 London Games, Curtis was engaged to be married to Gordon Cuneo, a former basketball player for Cal; they were married in 1949, and she chose not to train for the 1952 Games,[2] also in part because she had accepted a car from the City of San Francisco upon her return from London, which made her a professional swimmer.[1]
In 1959, after retiring from the sport, she opened the Ann Curtis Swim Club and School of Swimming with her husband.[2] She was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1966,[6] and the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1983. Curtis died at her home in San Rafael, California on June 26, 2012, aged 86.[7]
Date | Distance | Pool | Time | Location | Record |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
15 May 1943 | 220 yd (200 m) | short pool | 2:32.4 | Crystal Plunge | National Junior |
12 June 1943 | 100 yd (91 m) | 1:02.5 | Fleishhacker Pool | American | |
13 June 1943 | 220 yd (200 m) | long pool | 2:33.6 | Fleishhacker Pool | American |
30 July 1944 | 800 m (870 yd) | 11:08.6 | Fleishhacker Pool | World | |
8 August 1943 | 440 yd (400 m) | long pool | 5:25.0 | Fleishhacker Pool | American |
15 August 1944 | 440 yd (400 m) | short pool | 5:21.7 | Athens Athletic Club | National Championship |
2 May 1947 | 100 yd (91 m) | long pool | 0:59.4 | UW University Pool | American (tied World)[8] |
See also
- List of members of the International Swimming Hall of Fame
- List of Olympic medalists in swimming (women)
- List of University of California, Berkeley alumni
References
- ^ a b Chapin, Dwight (April 1, 2001). "'48 Olympian Has Never Strayed Far From Swimming Pool". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved January 13, 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f Berry, Robyn (August 9, 2002). "Marin swim school a passion for former Olympian/Champ Cuneo has taught kids for 43 years". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved January 13, 2017.
- ^ Chapin, Dwight (July 11, 2012). "Gold-medalist Ann Curtis Cuneo dies at 86". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved January 13, 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f Kamiya, Gary (January 30, 2015). "Odd apartments mark pool site where famed female swimmer trained". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved January 13, 2017. (subscription required)
- ^ Crumpacker, John (May 15, 2008). "Filling a fast lane for San Francisco". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved January 13, 2017.
- ^ "Anne Curtis (USA)". ISHOF.org. International Swimming Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 15, 2015.
- ^ "Ann Curtis Cuneo Obituary: View Ann Cuneo's obituary". Legacy.com. Retrieved July 3, 2012.
- ^ "Ann Curtis Breaks Helene Madison Record (1947)". The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts), 03 May 1947, Page 5. Retrieved October 6, 2022.
External links
- Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Ann Curtis". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 2020-04-17.
- Ann Curtis (USA) – Honor Swimmer profile at International Swimming Hall of Fame at the Wayback Machine (archived 2015-04-02)
- Jennings, Dean (8 May 1948). "The Grumpy Genius of Crystal Plunge". Saturday Evening Post. Vol. 220, no. 45. p. 36.