Patricia Joan Keller McCormick (May 12, 1930 – March 7, 2023) was an American competitive diver who won both diving events at two consecutive

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Summer Olympics or the Games of the Olympiad, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, then part of the King ...

, in 1952 and 1956. She won the James E. Sullivan Award for best amateur athlete in the US in 1956 – the second woman to do so, after Ann Curtis. As a child in the 1930s and 1940s she executed dives that were not allowed in competition for female divers (dives reputed to scare most men) and practiced cannonballs off the Los Alamitos Bridge in

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Harbor. She attended

Woodrow Wilson Classical High School Woodrow Wilson High School (colloquially known as Long Beach Wilson) is an American public high school located in Long Beach, California. This two-block campus is located approximately 1.5 miles from the Pacific Ocean, across from the Recreation ...

Long Beach City College Long Beach City College (LBCC) is a public community college in Long Beach, California, United States. It was established in 1927 and is divided into two campuses, the Liberal Arts Campus (LAC) in Lakewood Village and the Trades, Technology, an ...

, and

California State University, Long Beach California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), also known in athletics as Long Beach State University (LBSU), is a public teaching-focused institution in Long Beach, California, United States. The 322-acre campus is the second largest in the ...

. After the Olympics McCormick did diving tours and was a model for

Catalina swimwear Catalina is a brand of women's swimwear. It was once one of the oldest clothing manufacturers in California. Their history began in 1907, as Bentz Knitting Mills, a small manufacturer of underwear and sweaters. The name was changed to Pacific Kni ...

. She served on the

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1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the ...

organizing committee and began a program called "Pat's Champs"—a foundation to help motivate kids to dream big and to set practical ways to succeed. McCormick's husband, Glenn, was a diving coach for her, as well as for other Olympic diving medalists. They divorced after 24 years of marriage. He died in 1995. They had two children, Tim, born in 1956, just five months before McCormick won two gold medals at the Melbourne Olympics, and Kelly (born 1960), who won two Olympic medals (silver, bronze) in diving. McCormick once appeared on an episode of ''

To Tell the Truth ''To Tell the Truth'' is an American television panel show. Four celebrity panelists are presented with three contestants (the "team of challengers", each an individual or pair) and must identify which is the "central character" whose unusual ...

'' in 1957 (she appeared as an imposter) and on an episode of ''

You Bet Your Life ''You Bet Your Life'' is an American comedy quiz series that has aired on both radioOrange County, California Orange County (officially the County of Orange; often initialized O.C.) is a county (United States), county located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population ...

, on March 7, 2023, at the age of 92.

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* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:McCormick, Pat 1930 births 2023 deaths American female divers Medalists at the 1952 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1956 Summer Olympics Divers at the 1952 Summer Olympics Divers at the 1956 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the United States in diving Divers at the 1951 Pan American Games Divers at the 1955 Pan American Games Medalists at the 1951 Pan American Games Medalists at the 1955 Pan American Games Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States in diving Pan American Games silver medalists for the United States in diving James E. Sullivan Award recipients California State University, Long Beach alumni Wilson Classical High School alumni Sportspeople from Orange County, California People from Seal Beach, California 20th-century American sportswomen

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