Bush, Lesley L.
Diving
b. Sept. 17, 1947, Orange, NJ
When Lesley Bush's parents heard reports that she had won a gold medal in platform diving at the 1964 Olympics, they didn't believe it until she phoned from Tokyo to give them the news. Bush, a sixteen-year-old high school student, was given no chance of beating the defending champion, Ingrid Engel-Kramer of Germany, but she went ahead on the first dive and led all the way.
Bush won her first national championship in the outdoor platform in 1965. She was the outdoor platform and indoor 1-meter springboard champion in 1967, when she won a gold medal in the platform competition at the Pan-American Games.
In 1968, Bush won the outdoor platform and the 3-meter springboard titles. At the Olympics that year, she had a poor first dive and failed to medal. She then retired from competition.