Born in San Diego, California, on April 26, 1947, Donna Elizabeth De Varona grew up to become the sport’s pin-up girl of the 1960s.

One of the most photographed women athletes of her age, De Varona was a star of US nationwide swim suit adverts and cover girl for Life and Time magazines, the Saturday Evening Post, and twice for Sports Illustrated.

Coached at the Santa Clara Swim Club by George Haines, De Varona had come to the coach’s attention as a pupil at the Santa Clara High School, where he took the team for training early in his career. On his list of record-breaking champion charges, De Varona stands out for her multi-stroke versatility - she set records on backstroke and medley - and, after swimming was done, as a pioneering broadcaster and an advocate for clean sport and fair play for women.

Four years after her Olympic debut in Rome at 13 (when she swam the heats of the 4x100m freestyle relay), De Varona raced in a class of her own to win the inaugural 400m medley (5:18.7) and with teammates Sharon Stouder, Pokey Watson and Kathleen Ellis set a world-record (4:03.8) for a second gold, with teammates, in the 4x100m freestyle relay. 

Those efforts led to De Varona being feted as America's Outstanding Woman Athlete and Outstanding American Female Swimmer, and San Francisco's Outstanding Woman of the Year in 1964.

Between 1960 and 1964 De Varona was the best all-rounder in the world: she set a record seven global standards in the 200m medley and six World Records in the 400m medley (5:36.5, 1960, down to 5:14.9, 1964), held the world 100m backstroke record (1:08.9, 1963), was a member of three world-record breaking relays in 1964, two for Santa Clara SC (4:08.5 over 4x100m freestyle and 4:38.1 over 4x100m medley) and one for the USA for 4x100 free gold at the Tokyo Olympics.

Donna de Varona's SOS Hall of Fame profile - including a chart of all her Wold records...