McCormick, Patricia J. (Keller)
Diving
b. May 12, 1930, Seal Beach, CA
In 1951, McCormick went to a doctor because she was exhausted. Her schedule called for five hours of diving practice, two hours of housework, shopping, and cooking, and another three hours of practice. The doctor found lacerations to her arms and legs, welts across her back, a loosened jaw, scars in her scalp and on her back, a healed rib fracture, and a healed finger fracture. "I've seen worse casualty cases," he said, "but only where a building caved in."
McCormick performed difficult, dangerous dives usually attempted only by men in her era and outlawed for women in international competition until 1952, when she won gold medals in the Olympic springboard and platform events. She also won both events in 1956, just eight months after birth of her first child. The first diver of either sex to accomplish win the springboard and platform at two Olympics, McCormick was voted the Sullivan Award as the nation's outstanding amateur athlete.
Her first national championship came in the national outdoor platform dive in 1949. She also won that event in 1950, 1951, 1954, and 1955. McCormick was the outdoor 1-meter and 3-meter springboard champion in 1950, 1951, and from 1953 through 1956. Indoors, she won the 1-meter five years in a row, from 1951 through 1955 and the 3-meter in 1951, 1952, 1954, and 1955.
She retired from competition after the 1956 Olympics and operated a diving camp for a number of years. In 1984, she was a member of the escort for the U. S. flag at the Olympic opening ceremonies. Her daughter, Kelly, won a silver medal in the springboard that year.