Jane Fauntz
New Orleans, Louisiana | |||||||||||||||
Died | May 30, 1989 Escondido, California | (aged 78)||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Height | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) | ||||||||||||||
Sport | |||||||||||||||
Sport | Diving, swimming | ||||||||||||||
Event(s) | Breaststroke, 3 m springboard | ||||||||||||||
Club | Illinois Women's Athletic Club | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
|
Jane Fauntz (December 19, 1910 – May 30, 1989), also known by her married name Jane Manske, was a national champion swimmer and
Fauntz was born in
At the age of 17 at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, Fauntz finished in fifth place in the women's 200-meter breaststroke.[2][3] Her specialty, however, was diving. Describing Fauntz during the Olympic diving competition, author Paul Gallico wrote in the New York Daily News:
"..Her marvelous body flowed through the dives with the smoothness of running quicksilver."
That "marvelous body" became a source of mild controversy at the Los Angeles games, when a Hungarian diving judge, Dr. Leo Donath, ordered the diving competition halted until the American divers changed their suits; he had objected to the near-backless cut of the team-supplied swimsuit.
At the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) swimming indoor national championships in Chicago in 1929, Fauntz won two national titles within the space of one half-hour, winning the one-meter springboard and 100-meter breaststroke titles.
Fauntz captured the three-meter springboard bronze medal at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, finishing 5 points behind gold medalist Georgia Coleman and a single point behind silver medalist Katherine Rawls, helping the United States team to a sweep of the event. Fauntz led the competition after the compulsory dives, but slipped to third after mistiming the entry on her next-to-last optional dive. (Fauntz later said this dive was "the worst one I'd ever done. There went my world; I didn't even want to come up from the pool.")
Fauntz parlayed her Olympic success to a career in marketing, modeling, and professional aquatic exhibitions. She became one of the first female athletes to appear on the
An artist by training (B.A., art education,
Fauntz died of leukemia on May 30, 1989. In 1991 she was posthumously inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.[2]
See also
- List of members of the International Swimming Hall of Fame
- List of Olympic medalists in diving
- List of University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign people
References
- ^ "Jane Fauntz Wears U.S. Shield in Olympic Meet". Suburbanite Economist. Chicago, Illinois. July 24, 1928. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
- ^ a b c Jane Fauntz. International Swimming Hall of Fame
- ^ a b Jane Fauntz Archived October 2, 2015, at the Wayback Machine. sports-reference.com
- ^ ISBN 9781600521003.
- ^ Schoenfeld, Ed (April 27, 1971). "Springboard Class". Oakland Tribune. p. E41. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
Further reading
- Charleston Daily Mail, March 27, 1928, pg 11: Jane Fauntz Sets Two Swim Records
- San Antonio Light, August 14, 1932, pg 25: Divers Forced to Cover-Up
- Hyde Park Weekly, September 19, 1928, pg 4: "Popular H.P. Girl Swims to Victory in Olympic Trials
- Ban on girl's interscholastic athletic competition in Illinois affects Jane Fauntz
- Oral History Interview for Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles Olympic project
- Jane Fauntz at Find a Grave