Eleanor Holm Sets The Pace Before Olympic Fame Leads To Celebrity Fortune
American pioneer competed at the 1928 Olympics four years before she claimed the 1932 Olympic 100m backstroke title at a home Games in Los Angeles. She would gain greater notoriety four years later after being barred from the USA team during the voyage to the Berlin 1936 Olympics
Eleanor Grace Theresa Holm of Brooklyn, New York, claimed the 1932 Olympic 100m backstroke title at a home Games in Los Angeles. She would gain greater notoriety four years later after being barred from the USA team during the voyage to the Berlin 1936 Olympics - and still later when a divorce trial with impresario Billy Rose, dubbed "the war of the Roses" gripped the nation.
On this day in 1930, she broke the first of her three World records in the 200m backstroke in 2mins 58.8, which shaved 0.4sec off the standard that had stood since 1928 to Dutch Olympic 100m champion in that same year, Marie Braun:
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