Helen WAINWRIGHT

Helen Wainwright is one of only three American women who have won Olympic medals for swimming and diving. In 1922, she set a world record in the 1,500 m ladies’ freestyle. Representing the Women’s Swimming Association of New York, Wainwright won 17 AAU swimming championships and two indoor AAU diving championships and during World War II turned over all her trophies to the government for the metal drive. She later turned professional and toured the country with several aquacades, playing the theaters with a portable tank. Wainwright married a career military man, Lt. Cree Stelling. Together with Aileen Riggin she was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1967.