Athletes

In the 1960 Olympic Games, Chris von Saltza Olmstead won three gold medals (400m freestyle; 4x100m freestyle relay; 4x100m medley relay) and silver in the 100m freestyle. She holds four world records and 32 U.S. national championship titles. Her 4:44.5 world record for the 400m freestyle ended the domination by Australian women. In route to the 1960 Olympic Games von Saltza Olmstead won five gold medals in the 1959 Pan American Games. After the Rome Games she retired and went on to study Asian history at Stanford. She took a leave of absence during 1963-64 to be a coach-consultant in Asia in the American Specialist Program under a state department grant. Von Saltza Olmstead also visited and taught competitive swimming in South Korea, the Philippines, South Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. In 1968 she was an assistant chaperone-coach for the U.S. girls at the Olympic Games in Mexico City. Von Saltza Olmstead was on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1968. (9/04)