Joan Spillane
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Joan Arlene Spillane | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| National team |  United States | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | January 31, 1943 Glen Ridge, New Jersey, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 139 lb (63 kg) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Swimming | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Strokes | Freestyle | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Houston Dad's Club | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Joan Arlene Spillane (born January 31, 1943) is an American former competition swimmer, Olympic champion, and former world record-holder.
At the Texas Amateur Athletic Association Annual Championship meet in the summer of 1959 in Tyler, swimming for Houston's Dads Club, Spillane broke the National AAU Record in the Women's 100-meter butterfly.[1]
She won a silver medal in the 100 m freestyle and the gold in the 4×100 m freestyle relay with teamates Molly Botkin, Shirley Stobs, and Chris von Saltza at the 1959 Pan American Games.[2]
1960 Rome Olympics
[edit]In the 1960 Olympic Trials, Spillane finished third in both the 100 and 200 meter freestyle, qualifying for a place on the U.S. Women's Olympic relay teams.[3]
Spillane competed at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, where she received a gold medal as a member of the winning U.S. team in the women's 4×100-meter freestyle relay, together with teammates Shirley Stobs, Carolyn Wood and Chris von Saltza. She, Wood, and Saltza set a new world record in the 4×100-meter freestyle of 4:08.9. Spillane swam the first leg of the relay final. In the third leg of the final, American Carolyn Wood passed Australian Lorraine Crapp to take the lead by 2.7 seconds, with anchor leg swimmer Chris von Saltza easily maintaining and adding to the American lead to finish with a three length win.[2]
Spillane also swam the freestyle leg for the gold medal-winning U.S. team in the preliminary heats of the women's 4×100-meter medley relay, but she was ineligible for a medal under the 1960 international swimming rules because she did not swim in the event final.[4]
Spillane attended the University of Michigan.[5]
See also
[edit]- List of Olympic medalists in swimming (women)
- List of University of Michigan alumni
- World record progression 4 × 100 metres freestyle relay
References
[edit]- ^ "Giant Swim Show on Tap", Tyler Morning Telegraph, Tyler, Texas, 7 July 1960, pg. 18
- ^ a b "Olympedia Biography, Joan Spillane". olympedia.org. Retrieved December 18, 2024.
- ^ "Michigan in the Olympics, Joan Spillane". bentley.umich.edu. Retrieved December 18, 2024.
- ^ "1960 Summer Olympics – Rome, Italy – Swimming" Archived 2007-09-04 at the Wayback Machine – databaseOlympics.com (Retrieved on April 29, 2008)
- ^ article on UMich people at the 1960 Olympics
See also
[edit]- Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Joan Spillane". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on May 20, 2011.
| Men's team |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Women's team | ||
  | This article about a swimming Olympic medalist of the United States is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
- 1943 births
- Living people
- American female freestyle swimmers
- World record setters in swimming
- Sportspeople from Glen Ridge, New Jersey
- Swimmers at the 1960 Summer Olympics
- Medalists at the 1960 Summer Olympics
- Olympic gold medalists for the United States in swimming
- University of Michigan alumni
- Swimmers at the 1959 Pan American Games
- Medalists at the 1959 Pan American Games
- Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States in swimming
- Pan American Games bronze medalists for the United States in swimming
- 20th-century American sportswomen
- American swimming Olympic medalist stubs