Sylvia Ruuska
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Sylvia Eliina Ruuska | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| National team |  United States | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | July 4, 1942 Berkeley, California | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 139 lb (63 kg) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Swimming | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Strokes | Freestyle, individual medley | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Berkeley YMCA | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Sylvia Eliina Ruuska (born July 4, 1942) is an American former competition swimmer, Olympic medalist, and former world record-holder in two events.
At the age of 14, Ruuska won two medals at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia.[1] She captured a silver medal by swimming for the second-place U.S. team in the women's 4×100-meter freestyle relay.[1] Individually, she also received a bronze medal for her third-place finish in the women's 400-meter freestyle.[1]
On June 27, 1958, she became the first woman to set an official world record in the 400-meter individual medley, clocking 5:46.6. Ruuska subsequently broke her own 400-meter record three times in 1958 and 1959, ultimately lowering the world mark to 5:40.2 on July 17, 1959. She also set a new world record of 2:43.2 in the 200-meter individual medley on August 16, 1958, and breaking her own record with a time of 2:40.3 on January 14, 1959. Both her 200-meter and 400-meter individual medley world records were later broken by Donna de Varona. At the 1959 Pan American Games in Chicago, she won a silver medal for her second-place showing in the 400-meter freestyle (5:03.4), finishing behind fellow American Chris von Saltza (4:55.9).
At the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy, Ruuska swam for the gold medal-winning U.S. team in the preliminary heats of the women's 4×100-meter freestyle relay.[1] Under the international swimming rules in effect in 1960, she did not receive a medal because she did not swim in the event final.
Ruuska was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1976.[2]
See also[]
- List of Olympic medalists in swimming (women)
- List of Stanford University people
- World record progression 200 metres individual medley
- World record progression 400 metres individual medley
References[]
- ^ a b c d Sports-Reference.com, Olympic Sports, Athletes, Sylvia Ruuska. Retrieved September 29, 2012.
- ^ International Swimming Hall of Fame, Honorees, Sylvia Ruuska (USA) Archived 2007-10-28 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved October 10, 2012.
External links[]
- Sylvia Ruuska at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)
- Sylvia Ruuska (USA) – Honor Swimmer profile at International Swimming Hall of Fame
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- 1942 births
- Living people
- American female freestyle swimmers
- American female medley swimmers
- American people of Finnish descent
- World record setters in swimming
- Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in swimming
- Olympic silver medalists for the United States in swimming
- Swimmers from Berkeley, California
- Stanford University alumni
- Swimmers at the 1956 Summer Olympics
- Swimmers at the 1959 Pan American Games
- Swimmers at the 1960 Summer Olympics
- Medalists at the 1956 Summer Olympics
- Pan American Games silver medalists for the United States
- Pan American Games medalists in swimming
- Medalists at the 1959 Pan American Games
- 21st-century American women