Rawls, Katherine L.
Diving, Swimming
b. June 14, 1918, Nashville, TN
d. April 8, 1982
Probably the most versatile swimmer/diver in history, Rawls won a total of 28 national championships in springboard diving and three different swimming events between 1932 and 1938. She also won silver medals in Olympic springboard diving in 1932 and 1936 and a bronze medal as a member of the U. S. 400-meter relay team in 1936.
Rawls grew up in Florida. At thirteen, she placed second in the AAU national platform diving championship. She went on to win the 3-meter springboard championship from 1932 through 1934 and the 1-meter springboard in 1933 and 1934.
Her first national swimming championship came in the outdoor 220-yard breast stroke in 1931. She also won that event in 1932 and 1935. She won outdoor championships in the 440-yard freestyle in 1937 and 1938; the 880-yard freestyle in 1932, 1937, and 1938; and the 300-meter medley relay in 1934. Indoors, Rawls won the 100-yard freestyle in 1935.
Rawls' best event was the 300-meter individual medley. She won national outdoor championships at seven consecutive meets, from 1931 through 1938 (there was no competition in 1934), and she was the indoor titlist in the event six years in a row, from 1933 through 1938.
In 1937, Associated Press sportswriters voted her the athlete of the year after she became the first woman to win four national championships at one meet. Rawls repeated the feat in 1938.
She retired from competition in 1939. During World War II, Rawls (then Mrs. Theodore Thompson) was one of the first twenty-five women pilots selected to ferry fighting planes to combat zones for the Air Transport Command.