Shelley Mann

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For the drummer, see Shelly Manne.
Shelley Mann
Long Island, New York
DiedMarch 24, 2005(2005-03-24) (aged 67)
Height5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Weight134 lb (61 kg)
Sport
SportSwimming
StrokesButterfly, freestyle
ClubWalter Reed Swim Club
Medal record
Women's swimming
Representing the  United States
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 1956 Melbourne
100 m butterfly
Silver medal – second place 1956 Melbourne
4x100 m freestyle
Pan American Games
Bronze medal – third place 1955 Mexico City 100 m butterfly

Shelley Isabel Mann (October 15, 1937 – March 24, 2005) was an American competition

women's 4×100-meter freestyle relay.[1]

Early years

Mann was born in Long Island, New York in 1937 to Hamilton and Isabel Mann. Her father was in the U.S. Navy during World War II.[2]

Mann caught

polio at age six while living in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She spent weeks in the hospital and was left with a paralyzed right leg.[2] Over the next few years, Mann took daily sessions of therapy, including passive and active hydrotherapy. Although progress was slow, with her saying "I’m just no good" to her father,[2] this eventually paid off, because she regained control over her arms, and then by the age of ten, she had regained control over her legs.[3][4] At the age of 11, she learned to swim.[3]

Achievements in competitive swimming

At the age of 12, Shelley Mann was swimming competitively, and by the time she was 14 she had won the first of what would eventually be 24 AAU national championships in the freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly, and individual medley events.[2][3][5][6]

At 15, she held multiple world records, though these are currently not FINA recognized as they were achieve before 1957.[3][7]

In 1955, Mann graduated from Washington-Lee High School.[2]

Mann first learned to swim the butterfly stroke when meeting Charles Silva and William Yorzyk at the 1956 US Olympic trials for swimming, where Silva taught Mann, using Yorzyk as a demonstration.[3] Both Yorzyk and Mann would go on to win the only butterfly events at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.[1][8] Yorzyk recalled that Mann had trouble breaking bad habits when transitioning from butterfly-breaststroke to butterfly.[3]

When she moved to study at the American University in Washington, D.C., she joined the Walter Reed Swim Club.[9] The swim team had to train at 6:00am because the Walter Reed medical hospital was needed for the patients.[7][2]

At the 100 metres butterfly event at the 1955 Pan American Games, Shelley Mann won a bronze medal.[10][5]

At 17, she won the 100 metres butterfly event at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, and placed sixth in the 100m freestyle event.[1]

Later life

By 19, Mann had already retired from swimming, and enrolled at Cornell University.[2]

Upon graduating from Cornell, Mann set up her own swim school in Arlington, named the "Shelley Mann Swim School".[2]

Shelley Mann received the National B’nai B’rith Award for “high principle and achievement in sports”, and award of merit in Aquatics from the Los Angeles Times, and a goodwill tour of New Zealand from the New Zealand Swimming Association.[6]

She was inducted into the

Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 1984.[2]

Death

Shelley Mann died on 24 March, 2005, at the age of 67 and was buried in her families plot of land in Thornrose Cemetery, Staunton.[6][2]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "Olympedia – 100 metres Butterfly, Women". Olympedia. 14 December 2023. Archived from the original on 14 December 2023. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Nancy, Sorrells (August 19, 2016). "1956 Olympic gold medalist buried in Thornrose". News Leader, part of the USA Today Network.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Barney, David E., and Robert K. Barney. "A long night's journey into day: the Odyssey of the butterfly stroke in international swimming." Proceedings: International Symposium for Olympic Research, Oct. 2006, pp. 65+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A176818711/AONE?u=googlescholar&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=535b6e53. Accessed 12 Dec. 2023.
  4. ^ "At the age of five she had polio. … Her parents took her daily to a swimming pool where they hoped the water would help hold her arms up as she tried to use them again. When she could lift her arm out of the water with her own power, she cried for joy. Then her goal was to swim the width of the pool, then the length, then several lengths. She kept on trying, swimming, enduring, day after day after day, until she won the gold medal for the butterfly stroke—one of the most difficult of all swimming strokes." (Marvin J. Ashton, April 1975 General Conference Report)
  5. ^ a b "Olympedia – Shelley Mann". Olympedia. 14 December 2023. Archived from the original on 14 December 2023. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
  6. ^ a b c "Shelley Mann | Virginia Sports Hall of Fame". Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. 14 December 2023. Archived from the original on 14 December 2023. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
  7. ^ a b c "Shelley Mann (USA)". ISHOF.org. International Swimming Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on April 12, 2015. Retrieved April 11, 2015.
  8. ^ "Olympedia – 200 metres Butterfly, Men". Olympedia. 13 December 2023. Archived from the original on 13 December 2023. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
  9. ^ Sports Illustrated Vault: STAN TINKHAM'S TEEN-AGERS
  10. ^ "BEST SWIMMING 2015 – O Melhor da Natação Mundial". Best swimming. 2015-09-23. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 2023-12-14.

External links

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