Keena Rothhammer facts for kids
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| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | February 26, 1957 Little Rock, Arkansas, U.S. |
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| Height | 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 146 lb (66 kg) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Swimming | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Strokes | Freestyle | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Santa Clara Swim Club | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coach | George Haines (Santa Clara SC) |
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Medal record
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Keena Ruth Rothhammer (born February 26, 1957) is a famous American former competitive swimmer. She was an Olympic champion and held world records in two swimming events.
Keena was born in Little Rock, Arkansas. Her parents, Grant Roy Rothhammer and Dianne Becker Rothhammer, noticed she had amazing talent for swimming. To help her reach her full potential, her family moved to Southern California. This area had many excellent youth swimming programs for talented young athletes.
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Keena Rothhammer's Swimming Career
As a teenager, Keena grew up in Santa Clara, California. She trained with the Santa Clara Swim Club. Her coach was George Haines, a very well-known coach who trained many U.S. Olympic swimmers in the 1960s and 1970s.
Keena was good at many different swimming strokes. In July 1971, she won the 100-meter backstroke race at the Santa Clara Invitational. It was a very close finish!
Olympic Success in 1972
When she was just 15 years old, Keena Rothhammer represented the United States at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. She made history by becoming the youngest person to win a gold medal in the women's 800-meter freestyle event.
She also set a new world record of 8:53.68 in the 800-meter freestyle. She actually broke the world record on two days in a row! At the same 1972 Olympics, Keena also won a bronze medal in the women's 200-meter freestyle race.
World Championships and Achievements
In 1973, Keena competed at the first-ever 1973 World Aquatics Championships. She won the gold medal in the 200-meter freestyle. She also earned a silver medal in the 400-meter freestyle at the same championships.
That same year, she was named the North American Athlete of the Year. By the age of 16, Keena had achieved so much! She had an Olympic gold medal and a bronze medal. She held two world records and had won fifteen U.S. National championships. She also set ten American records.
Life After Competitive Swimming
Keena stopped competitive swimming partly because she suffered from severe migraine headaches. These headaches had started when she was in junior high school. After retiring from swimming, she traveled around the country. She worked with Special Olympics programs, helping athletes with intellectual disabilities.
Keena later attended the University of Southern California. She studied broadcast journalism there. After college, she worked in financial services, managing money for different companies.
In 1976, she married Scott Weisbly, but they later divorced. She lived with her second husband, John Zorovich, in the San Luis Obispo area.
Honors and Recognition
Keena Rothhammer's amazing swimming career was recognized in 1991. She was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame as an "Honor Swimmer." She was also one of the first people to be inducted into the Arkansas Swimming Hall of Fame.
See also
In Spanish: Keena Rothhammer para niños
- List of Olympic medalists in swimming (women)
- List of select Jewish swimmers
- List of University of Southern California people
- List of World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming (women)
- World record progression 400 metres freestyle
- World record progression 800 metres freestyle
