- Carolyn Wood (swimmer)
Carolyn Wood (born
December 18 ,1945 ) is a former competitive freestyle and butterflyswimmer from theUnited States who won a gold medal the 4x100m freestyle relay in the1960 Summer Olympics inRome, Italy . At the time of the Olympics, Wood was 14 and the youngest member of the 1960 United States Olympic team.cite news|title=Oregon's Olympians Look Back|last=Cluff|first=Carl|date=September 16 1988 |work=The Oregonian ]Olympics
Wood swam for the
Multnomah Athletic Club swim team in her hometown ofPortland, Oregon . At the U.S. Olympic swimming trials in 1960, she finished first in the 100 meter butterfly event and was favored to win the gold medal in that event at the Olympics. However, during the Olympic finals, she accidentally swallowed water during the turn and did not finish the race.cite web|url=http://www.ishof.org/honorees/89/89cschuler.html|title=Carolyn Schuler|publisher=International Swimming Hall of Fame|accessdate=2008-02-13] cite news|title=Collegian Victor in Breast-Stroke|work=New York Times |url=http://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F10C17FC345A1A7A93C3AA1783D85F448685F9|date=August 31 1960 |last=Danzig|first=Allison|accessdate=2008-02-13]Four days later, she swam the third leg of the 4 x 100 meter relay, during which she caught up to and passed Australian swimmer
Lorraine Crapp and gave a two-foot lead to anchor swimmerChris von Saltza , who finished the relay in first place to give the American team the gold medal, setting a new world record of 4:08.9, nine seconds faster than the previous record.cite news|url=http://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F60A16FD345A1A7A93C6A91782D85F448685F9|title=U.s. Women Break Swim Relay Mark|date=September 4 1960 |work=New York Times |accessdate=2008-02-13]After the Olympics
Wood returned to her hometown of
Portland, Oregon following the Olympics where she attendedBeaverton High School . During one summer, she worked as alifeguard and was ruled a professional, and was therefore ineligible to swim collegiately or in subsequent Olympics.cite news|title="Giant Killers" Highlight of Oregon Hall of Fame Induction Ceremonies|last=Schneidermann|first=Floyd|date=August 2 1992 ] Wood attended theUniversity of Oregon and became a high school English teacher in Portland. She was inducted into theOregon Sports Hall of Fame in 1992.cite web|url=http://www.oregonsportshall.org/inductee/roll/swimDive.htm|title=Inductees: Swimming & Diving|accessdate=2008-02-13|publisher=Oregon Sports Hall of Fame]References
External links
* [http://www.databaseolympics.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=WOODCAR01 databaseOlympics profile]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.