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Katherine Louise Rawls (June 14, 1917〔Birthdate June 14, 1917 is listed in the Social Security Death Index (); June 28, 1917 is given by Burghard in ''Time'', 1935 (see below); June 14, 1918 is given by Ralph Hickok ()〕 – April 8, 1982), also known by her married names Katherine Thompson and Katherine Green, was an American competition swimmer and diver. She was the United States national champion in multiple events during the 1930s. ==Swimming career== Rawls was born in Nashville, Tennessee. She learned to swim at the age of two,〔Nason, p. 199〕 in Saint Augustine, Florida, and took up diving at the age of seven in Tampa, from a 25-foot (7.6m) platform.〔Nason, p. 201〕 During her swimming career she was sometimes called Katy Rawls and nicknamed The Minnow.〔 Her sisters Dorothy (later Mrs. Williams), and Evelyn (McKee〔), were also Florida state champion swimmers, and the siblings were known collectively as "Rawls' Diving Trio".〔 Together with sister Peggy (Wedgworth〔) and brother Sonny, a champion diver,〔〔Pieroth, p. 64〕 the children went to junior contests and exhibitions, as "Rawls' Water Babies".〔 Rawls caused a sensation at the 1931 U.S. National Championships aged just 14, when she beat star Eleanor Holm in the 300m individual medley in a new world record,〔 〕 and the next day beat champion Margaret Hoffman in the 220yds breaststroke.〔Nason, pp. 206–7〕〔Pieroth, pp. 64, 78〕 Rawls moved from Hollywood, Florida〔 to Fort Lauderdale in 1932.〔FHSAA Girls Swimming & Diving Championship Record, p. 6: "14––Katherine Rawls, Hollywood, 75 IM 1931; 100 breast 1931; Diving 1931; Fort Lauderdale, 50 back 1933, 1935; 75 IM 1932, 1933; 100 free 1934; 150 free 1934; 100 breast 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935; Diving 1935." The International Swimming Hall of Fame misprints this as 1933 ("Her first grand slam came in 1933, the year she moved to Fort Lauderdale": Her first grand slam was also in 1932.)〕 She received sponsorship from Miami Beach to attend the trials for the 1932 Olympics, and was sometimes misidentified with that city.〔 At the trials, she surprisingly failed to qualify in the 200m-meter breaststroke:〔Nason, p. 207〕〔Pieroth p. 78〕 told by her coach to conserve her strength and aim for the third and last qualifying spot, she narrowly finished fourth. After her loss, she rowed across to the springboard diving, where she surprisingly beat champion Georgia Coleman.〔Pieroth p.78〕 She scratched from the high diving because of high winds.〔Pieroth p.79〕 She finished second to Coleman at the Olympics. Rawls beat Coleman again at the National championships that September: one of four victories, the maximum then possible at one meet. She enjoyed sustained success thereafter, often competing in exhibition and carnival events, including a "swim decathlon" in 1934 before a crowd of 50,000, in which she won every event. By 1935, the ''New York Times'' made her favorite in seven of the nine events in the upcoming Nationals, depending on which she chose to compete in.〔 Her best swimming events were the individual medley and the distance events,〔 neither of which were Olympic events in the 1930s. (The medley used only three strokes: the butterfly stroke was not separated from the breaststroke until 1952.) She succeeded instead in qualifying for the 100-meter freestyle in the 1936 Summer Olympics, finishing seventh in the individual and third in the relay.〔Nason, pp. 216–9〕 In the springboard diving competition, she suffered a shock defeat on the last dive, to teammate Marjorie Gestring, who was herself just 13.〔Nason, pp. 221–2〕 Subsequently Rawls concentrated on swimming rather than diving.〔Nason, p. 202〕 In 1937, hours after disembarking at San Francisco after a swimming tour of Japan, she commenced a three-day streak at the Nationals which produced an unprecedented four individual swimming titles.〔Nason, p. 226〕 For this she was named Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year for 1937,〔 〕 and polled third for the James E. Sullivan Award.〔 〕 In 1938 she retained all four National titles. At the time she was holder of 18 national swimming records in breaststroke, freestyle, and medley events,〔Nason, pp. 202, 228〕 and had been undefeated in medley races for eight years.〔 Rawls retired from swimming in 1939, but returned to diving for the trials for the 1948 Olympics, placing fifth with 108.56 points. Second of the three qualifiers was eventual gold medalist Victoria Draves on 111.14, with Marjorie Gestring fourth on 110.67.〔 〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Katherine Rawls」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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