Keena Rothhammer
Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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Full name | Keena Ruth Rothhammer | ||||||||||||||||||||||
National team | United States | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Little Rock, Arkansas | February 26, 1957||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 146 lb (66 kg) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | Swimming | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Strokes | Freestyle | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Club | Santa Clara Swim Club | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Keena Ruth Rothhammer (born February 26, 1957) is an American former competition swimmer, Olympic champion, and former world record-holder in two events.
Rothhammer was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, and is Jewish.[1]
Swimming career[]
As a teenager, she grew up in Santa Clara, California[2] and trained with the Santa Clara Swim Club in Santa Clara under the coach George Haines, who was noted for leading U.S. Olympic swimmers during the 1960s and 1970s.
As a 15-year-old, Rothhammer represented the United States at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. She won the gold medal in the women's 800-meter freestyle and set a new world record in the event twice, on successive days.[1] She also won the bronze medal in the women's 200-meter freestyle at the 1972 Olympics. At the 1973 World Aquatics Championships, she won the 200-meter freestyle and finished second in the 400-meter freestyle.[3] The same year, she was named North American Athlete of the Year.[1]
She was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame as an "Honor Swimmer" in 1991.[4]
See also[]
- List of Olympic medalists in swimming (women)
- List of select Jewish swimmers
- List of University of Southern California people
- List of World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming (women)
- World record progression 400 metres freestyle
- World record progression 800 metres freestyle
References[]
- ^ a b c Taylor, Paul (2004). Jews and the Olympic Games: The Clash Between Sport and Politics : with a Complete Review of Jewish Olympic Medallists. Sussex Academic Press. ISBN 9781903900871.
- ^ "Shane Gould Sets Medley Mark". The New York Times. 6 April 1973.
- ^ Keena Rothhammer. Sports-Reference.com
- ^ International Swimming Hall of Fame, Honorees, Keena Rothhammer (USA). Retrieved October 19, 2012.
External links[]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Keena Rothhammer. |
- Keena Rothhammer – Jews in Sports profile
- 1957 births
- Living people
- American female freestyle swimmers
- World record setters in swimming
- Jewish American sportspeople
- Jewish swimmers
- Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in swimming
- Olympic gold medalists for the United States in swimming
- Sportspeople from Little Rock, Arkansas
- Sportspeople from Arkansas
- Swimmers at the 1972 Summer Olympics
- Medalists at the 1972 Summer Olympics
- University of Southern California alumni
- World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming
- 21st-century American Jews
- 21st-century American women