Helen Wainwright
Wainwright in 1922
Personal information
Full nameHelen E. Wainwright
National teamUnited States
Born(1906-03-15)March 15, 1906
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedOctober 8, 1965(1965-10-08) (aged 59)
Hampton Bays, New York, U.S.
Height5 ft 1 in (155 cm)
Sport
SportSwimming
StrokesFreestyle, springboard diving
ClubWomen's Swimming Association
Medal record
Representing the United States
Olympic Games
Women's diving
Silver medal – second place 1920 Antwerp 3 m springboard
Women's swimming
Silver medal – second place 1924 Paris 400 m freestyle

Helen E. Wainwright (March 15, 1906 – October 8, 1965), also known by her married name Helen Stelling, was a competition diver and swimmer who represented the United States at the 1920 Summer Olympics and 1924 Summer Olympics.[1] She remains the only woman to ever win Olympic silver medals in both swimming and diving.[1]

Biography

Helen Wainwright (right) with WSA teammate Aileen Riggin (left) in 1925

Helen Wainwright was the daughter of John Wainwright, a bricklayer from Lancaster, England, who emigrated to New York in 1888.[2]

She was a member of the Women's Swimming Association (WSA) of New York.[3] Swimming coach Louis de B. Handley called Wainwright the world's fastest swimmer. She won 19 gold medals in U.S. national championships, 17 of them for swimming and the other two for diving events.[2][4]

At the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, aged just 14 years old, Wainwright won the silver medal in the women's 3-meter springboard competition. Four years later, at the 1924 Olympics in Paris, she won the silver medal in the women's 400-meter freestyle event.[5]

On August 19, 1922, Wainwright set a world record in the women's 1500 metres freestyle swimming event,[3] which stood for over three years.

Shortly after the 1924 Olympics, she performed in swimming-and-diving shows at the New York Hippodrome along with fellow Olympians Aileen Riggin and Gertrude Ederle. They later toured round some of the biggest theaters in the U.S. using a portable water tank.[2][4]

Wainwright very nearly became the first woman to swim the English Channel in 1925; she was selected by the WSA to make the attempt but was forced to pull out due to an injury, so her teammate Gertrude Ederle was chosen to take her place.[2][6][7]

In the 1930s, she became a swimming coach on cruise liners out of New York.[2] She married a career military man, Lt. Cree Stelling.[3]

Wainwright was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1972.[4][8]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Helen Wainwright". Olympedia. Archived from the original on November 16, 2021. Retrieved November 16, 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Wainwright, Helen". ChannelSwimmingDover.org.uk. Dover Museum. Archived from the original on August 3, 2019. Retrieved August 3, 2019.
  3. 1 2 3 Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Helen Wainwright". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on April 17, 2020. Retrieved August 4, 2019.
  4. 1 2 3 "Honorees: Helen Wainwright (USA), 1972 Honor Swimmer/Diver". ISHOF.org. International Swimming Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on April 10, 2015. Retrieved April 9, 2015.
  5. ↑ "Helen Wainwright at the Olympics". OlympianDatabase.com. Archived from the original on March 8, 2022. Retrieved August 2, 2019.
  6. ↑ "American Girl to Try to Swim English Channel; Helen Wainwright, 19, Holds Record Here". The New York Times. January 16, 1925. Miss Helen Wainwright, America's all-around champion mermaid of 1924, will undertake to swim the English Channel, coveted goal of the world's greatest long distance swimmers, next Summer.
  7. ↑ Denman, Elliott (April 30, 2001). "SWIMMING; A Pioneer Looks Back on Her Unforgettable Feat". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 27, 2015. Helen Wainwright, an Olympic teammate, had originally been the Women's Swimming Association's selection to attempt the Channel swim in 1925. But when Wainwright was injured stepping off a New York trolley, the club turned to Ederle.
  8. ↑ "ISHOF Honorees by Last Name". ISHOF.org. International Swimming Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on October 22, 2019. Retrieved August 4, 2019.
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