Sylvia Eliina RUUSKA

Sylvia Ruuska developed through the age-group swim program and, together with her younger sister Pat, was a star performer on her father's Berkeley YMCA team that twice won the AAU national team championship. She set five world records and won 20 AAU titles, including the 400 y individual medley for five straight years from 1956. She was aged only 14 when she won her two medals at the 1956 Games. At the 1959 Pan American Games she won silver in the 400 m freestyle. On her second Olympic appearance in 1960 at Rome, she was appointed captain of the women's swim team, but swam only the heats of the freestyle relay.