{"id":439970,"date":"2020-07-15T04:24:56","date_gmt":"2020-07-15T11:24:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=439970"},"modified":"2024-10-28T11:28:36","modified_gmt":"2024-10-28T18:28:36","slug":"donna-de-varona-celebrated-her-first-world-record-60-years-ago-this-day-a-trailblazer-just-into-her-teens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/donna-de-varona-celebrated-her-first-world-record-60-years-ago-this-day-a-trailblazer-just-into-her-teens\/","title":{"rendered":"Donna de Varona Celebrated Her First World Record 60 Years Ago This Day A Trailblazer Just Into Her Teens"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the first World record set by Donna de Varona<\/strong> over 400m medley. At 13 years, 2 months and 19 days old, on July 15, 1960, in Indianapolis, the American pioneer clocked 5:36.5 over 400m medley. By the time she retired, she had left the standard at 5:14.9, via six global standards in a career crowned by Olympic gold.<\/p>\n

At Tokyo 1964, ‘Donna Dee’ – as de Varona was known back then – achieved sporting immortality by becoming the first Olympic 400m medley champion as the four-stroke event joined the Games program eight years after butterfly’s Olympic debut at Melbourne 1956. She would go on to be a prize-winning commentator on Olympic sport and a passionate advocate for women’s rights, athletes’ rights\u00a0and athlete representation.<\/p>\n

\"donnadevarona\"

Donna de Varona – Photo Courtesy: Donna de Varona<\/p><\/div>\n

Had Olympic and swimming bosses been a touch swifter with their decision-making, de Varona would likely have been 400m medley champion at Rome 1960, too: at 13, she would have been the youngest Gold medallist in Olympic history (a record held by U.S. diver Marjorie Gestring, who was 13 years and 263 days old at Berlin 1936).<\/p>\n

The baby of Team USA at the 1960 Games in the eternal city two months after she set her first World record, de Varona swam for the U.S. team in the heats of the 4\u00d7100 freestyle relay but in 1960 there were no medals for those who raced their nation into the final.<\/p>\n

Rome might have reaped two gold medals but de Varona had to wait four years until Tokyo 1964 to claim that count: her first gold came in the 4x100m freestyle final alongside Sharon Stouder, Pokey Watson and Kathy Ellis<\/strong> in a World record of 4:03.8, 3.1sec ahead of an Australian quartet that included Dawn Fraser<\/strong><\/a> at what would be her last Games and the Olympics at which she founded the Triple Crown Club (100m freestyle, 1956, 1960, 1964).<\/p>\n

Two days after the relay, De Varona made it gold number 2 with one of her own: in an Olympic record of 5:18.7. De Varona had been battling a fever heading into the 400m medley final. She was expected to win, however, on the strength of her world record weeks before. “All I remember is relief when I won the gold,\u2019\u2019 she said recently.<\/p>\n

Shy of the 5:14.9 World record she had established a few weeks before at Trials, she was still more than five seconds clear of USA team-mate Sharon Finneran<\/strong>, the American sweep completed by Martha Randall<\/strong>, just 0.1sec apart on 5:24.1 and 5:24.2.<\/p>\n

In the stands to cheer her on and celebrate her triumph were de Varona\u2019s parents, David and Martha. Her father had been a member of the University of California rowing team and may have made the 1940 Olympic Games had they not been cancelled due to the Second World War in which he served as paratrooper.<\/p>\n

Last month, journalist Stephen Wilson<\/em> caught up with Donna de Varona for his Wilson’s World<\/a> column at Aroundtherings.com<\/em>. She recalled the troubled history between Japan and the United States (and the Allies) and with a nod to her father and the healing power of time and effort, said:<\/p>\n

“Twenty-four years later there he was in former enemy territory as the house guest of a welcoming Japanese family.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Donna de Varona – where advocacy and representation began<\/h2>\n
\"Donna

Donna de Varona – Photo Courtesy: Swimming World Archive<\/p><\/div>\n

Wilson tells a lovely story about Rome 1960 and the kindness of German Olympic-medallist rower Juergen Schroeder<\/strong>, who would go on to help Munich secure the 1972 Olympics.<\/p>\n

Later, Schroeder worked with de Varona at the landmark 1981 Olympic Congress in Baden-Baden as athletes \u2013 including Thomas Bach and Sebastian Coe \u2013 played a leading role in the debate that paved the way for the creation of the IOC Athletes\u2019 Commission. Almost 40 years on, athletes are now pressing for athlete representation to move two the next level – independence: they feel let down by an in-house athlete representative system that all too often and on too many issues represents the views of governors not athletes.<\/p>\n

When de Varona looked back on her decades of broadcast and advocacy work, she told Wilson: \u201cI never thought my entire life\u2019s journey would be anchored by sport.”<\/p>\n

Now 73, she recalls Tokyo 1964 as a platform from which she would spring into the rest of life at a time when there was no college scholarship available for women. She told Wilson:<\/p>\n

“Those Olympics sent me on an incredible journey. Where would I be without the Games and the podium and the relationships I made?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In Tokyo, de Varona met Bill Bradley<\/strong>, a star of the U.S. basketball team. He would later become a three-term U.S. Senator from New Jersey. The two athletes talked politics over dinner every night in the athletes\u2019 dining hall and also became lasting friends. The swimmer told Wilson:<\/p>\n

\u201cWho would know that years later he would be in the Senate when I needed his support on two major pieces of legislation – the Amateur Sports Act and Title IX?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The 1964 Games marked de Varona’s fourth visit to the country. In 1961, on a goodwill tour by high school swimmers, she raced boys in relay races in 25m pools in remote villages surrounded by rice paddies, she told Wilson, noting: \u201cI didn\u2019t lose any of those races.” More significant was the healing that was underway in Japan at the time, part of the experience of an elite athlete that would shape an activist with a passion for social activism and change.<\/p>\n

This year finds her among a Who’s Who of Olympic champions, Olympians and their supporters calling for the U.S Senate to back the S2330 Empowering Athletes Act, with no loopholes for for rogues to exploit through organisational and constitutional weakness. <\/a><\/p>\n

Rule 50 And The Right To Protest<\/h2>\n

Donna de Varona<\/strong>, a\u00a0member of the IOC women and sport commission, spoke to Wilson as protests rolled across the United States and beyond following the death of George Floyd under the knee of a policeman in Minneapolis. The Black Lives Matter movement was picked up by athletes the world over as an example of an issue they may wish to protest about in peaceful fashion at the very moment of maximum publicity: during an Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is considering changes to the Olympic Charter<\/a> and has consulted – through athlete representatives – athletes to gauge what forms of protest might be acceptable under Rule 50.<\/a><\/p>\n

De Varona has long expressed the belief that Olympic athletes should follow their conscience and speak out in interviews and be active on social media on issues that affect their welfare and experience as athletes, as well as wider topics where athletes can help steer improvements to the lot and lives of others. On protests at the Olympic Games, she posed a question in her interview with Wilson:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019m on the podium and someone demonstrates for a cause, is that person not only hijacking my moment but, without my agreement, including me in his or her campaign?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"(L-R)

Mack Horton, left, keeps his distance to Sun Yang for the photo-op with bronze medallist Gabriele Detti after medals in the 400m free at world titles in Gwangju … podium protests followed after Sun Yang’s latest brush with anti-doping authorities – Photo Courtesy: Patrick B. Kraemer<\/p><\/div>\n

Good question. It cuts to the very heart of the podium protests against the presence of Sun Yang<\/a> by Mack Horton and Duncan Scott<\/strong> <\/a>at World Championships in Gwangju. Given that no authority had worked fast enough to present Sun from racing, Horton and Scott wanted to make their point peacefully – and did so, by refusing to pose with Sun for podium photos. As de Varona put it, they felt that he would be ‘hijacking their moment’ not only by taking a colour of medal that might have been theirs but by being there beside them forever in the photographic record of the ‘stolen’ moment.<\/p>\n

De Varona noted the need, however, for a framework of what is allowable, when and in what circumstances:<\/p>\n

\u201cAthletes are not alone up there on the podium if they choose to protest. If they protest, everyone could protest. You could have three different and perhaps adversarial protests taking place on the podium at the same time.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She was working for ABC as a commentator at Mexico 1968 when American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos<\/strong> gave raised-fist salutes on the medal podium. Lambasted back then, they are lauded now. De Varona recalled:<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring that time African-American athletes<\/a>, much less any athlete, had no voice, no representation with any power structure within or outside of sport. I supported Tommie Smith and John Carlos then. Their peaceful demonstration resonated globally.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Her suggestion to the IOC is this: provide a place in the Olympic Village where athletes can convene to share and express the views – and those discussions could then be broadcast on the Olympic Channel, where further discussion could take place. She told Wilson:<\/p>\n

\u201cBottom line, there would be no Olympics without the athletes. I have always felt that by competing in the Olympics athletes are ambassadors for inclusion, diversity, peace and understanding. With the tremendous pressures and burdens weighing on the movement, we must all come together to find solutions.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Rare in the Olympic Movement, Donna de Varona has found a way of navigating the fine line between expressing free, independent thought, including stinging criticism and even legal challenge, and diplomacy when steering broadcasters and governors down better pathways on issues of gender discrimination, athlete representation and much else.<\/p>\n

Donna de Varona – Career In Brief<\/h2>\n