Katherine Louise Rawls (June 14, 1917 – 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 Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and ...

. She learned to swim at the age of two,Nason, p. 199 in

Saint Augustine, Florida St. Augustine ( ; es, San Agustín ) is a city in the Southeastern United States and the county seat of St. Johns County on the Atlantic coast of northeastern Florida. Founded in 1565 by Spanish explorers, it is the oldest continuously inhabi ...

, 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 Eleanor G. Holm (December 6, 1913 – January 31, 2004) was an American competition swimmer and Olympic gold medalist. An Olympian in 1928 and 1932, she was expelled from the 1936 Summer Olympics team by Avery Brundage under controversial circu ...

in the 300m

individual medley Medley is a combination of four different swimming styles—backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and freestyle—into one race. This race is either swum by one swimmer as individual medley (IM) or by four swimmers as a medley relay. Individual m ...

in a new

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...

, and the next day beat champion Margaret Hoffman in the 220yds breaststroke. Rawls moved from Hollywood, Florida to

Fort Lauderdale A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

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: 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 A springboard or diving board is used for diving and is a board that is itself a spring, i.e. a linear flex-spring, of the cantilever type. Springboards are commonly fixed by a hinge at one end (so they can be flipped up when not in use), and ...

, where she surprisingly beat champion

Georgia Coleman Georgia V. Coleman (January 23, 1912 – September 14, 1940) was an American diver. She competed in the 3 m springboard and 10 m platform at the 1928 and 1932 Olympics and won one gold, one bronze and two silver medals. Domestically she col ...

. She scratched from the

high diving High diving is the act of diving into water from relatively great heights. High diving can be performed as an adventure sport (as with cliff diving), as a performance stunt (as with many records attempts), or competitively during sporting even ...

because of high winds. 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 A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop funct ...

: 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. In the springboard diving competition, she suffered a shock defeat on the last dive, to teammate Marjorie Gestring, who was herself just 13. Subsequently, Rawls concentrated on swimming rather than diving. 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. For this she was named

Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year The first Athlete of the Year award in the United States was initiated by the Associated Press (AP) in 1931. At a time when women in sports were not given the same recognition as men, the AP offered a male and a female athlete of the year award to ...

for 1937, and polled third for the

James E. Sullivan Award The AAU James E. Sullivan Award, presented by the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), is awarded annually in April to "the most outstanding amateur athlete in the United States". Representatives from the AAU created the AAU Sullivan Award with the int ...

. 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, 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 1948 Olympics may refer to: *The 1948 Winter Olympics, which were held in St. Moritz, Switzerland *The 1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and also known as London 1948) were an internation ...

, 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.

U.S. National championships

Rawls won a total of 33 U.S. national titles: 5 in diving and 28 in swimming, both indoors at the Spring Nationals and outdoors at the Summer Nationals. * 1931 Summer: 1st in 300m medley, 220yd breaststroke; 2nd in springboard diving * 1932 Summer: 1st in 300m medley, 220yd breaststroke, 880yd freestyle, springboard diving * 1933 Spring: 1st in 300yd medley, lowboard diving * 1933 Summer: 1st in 300m medley, springboard diving; 2nd in 220yd breaststroke * 1934 Spring: 1st in 300yd medley, lowboard diving; 2nd in highboard diving * 1934 Summer: 1st in 300m medley, springboard diving * 1935 Spring: 1st in 300yd medley, 100yd breaststroke, 100yd freestyle; 2nd in 220yd freestyle * 1935 Summer: 1st in 300m medley, 220yd breaststroke * 1936 Spring: 1st in 300yd medley, 100yd breaststroke * 1936 Summer: 1st in 300m medley * 1937 Spring: 1st in 300yd medley, 100yd breaststroke; 2nd in 500yd freestyle * 1937 Summer: 1st in 300m medley, 440yd, 880yd, & mile freestyle * 1938 Spring: 1st in 300m medley, 100yd breaststroke * 1938 Summer: 1st in 300m medley, 440yd, 880yd, & mile freestyle

Later life

In November 1937, Rawls' parents announced her engagement to an advertising executive named William Starr. On May 18, 1938, unbeknown to her mother, Rawls married Theodore H. Thompson, an airplane pilot. She began working at the Thompson School of Aviation in Fort Lauderdale. She had qualified as a pilot while still swimming. While continuing to swim at exhibitions, she did not compete at the 1939 Nationals, and retired from swimming when the 1940 Olympics ware cancelled owing to the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. She was one of the initial 28 pilots who formed the

Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) (also Women's Army Service Pilots or Women's Auxiliary Service Pilots) was a civilian women pilots' organization, whose members were United States federal civil service employees. Members of WASP became t ...

in 1942, stationed at Detroit, transporting military cargo by air as part of the U.S. war effort. In 1943, her husband reportedly sued her for divorce, but dropped the charges as caused by a "misunderstanding" and anticipated her return from Detroit to his farm in Florida. Rawls was a swimming instructor for 20 years at

The Greenbrier The Greenbrier is a luxury resort located in the Allegheny Mountains near White Sulphur Springs in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, in the United States. Since 1778, visitors have traveled to this part of the state to "take the waters" of th ...

White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia White Sulphur Springs is a city in Greenbrier County in southeastern West Virginia, United States. The population was 2,231 at the 2020 census. The city emblem consists of five dandelion flowers and the citizens celebrate spring with an annual Da ...

. In 1965, she was one of the inaugural inductees to the

International Swimming Hall of Fame The International Swimming Hall of Fame and Museum (ISHOF) is a history museum and hall of fame, located at One Hall of Fame Drive, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States, operated by private interests and serving as the central point for the s ...

, and officially opened its pool in Fort Lauderdale, near the former Casino Pool where she had trained in the 1930s. She died from cancer in 1982 after several years of illness.

References

Bibliography

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External links