The Olympic diver who never stopped achieving

Pat McCormick 1930–2023

Pat McCormick’s intense drive made her the first diver to sweep all golds in two Olympic Games. In 1948, she skipped her high school graduation for the U.S. Olympic trials but missed qualifying by less than one-hundredth of a point. Four years later, in the 1952 Olympics, she won in both women’s diving categories—and repeated the feat in 1956. “In ‘48, I just wanted to make the team,” she said. “I was standing there crying after I came up short, and that’s when I decided I would win a gold medal in the next Olympics. Then I thought, ‘Why not go to two Olympics and win four gold medals?’”

Born in Seal Beach, Calif., McCormick was “a miniature beach bum,” said the Los Angeles Times, hanging out at Muscle Beach, “where the bodybuilders tossed her around in their routines.”

She began formal diving training at age 17 and by 21 had become the first diver to win all five available national titles. She eventually racked up more than two dozen national championships as well as a gold medal in the Pan American Games.

After she retired, McCormick became “an adventurer,” said ESPN.com. She climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, voyaged down the Amazon River, competed in horse jumping, and even got a pilot’s license. McCormick said her restlessness came from the letdown that overcame her after her Olympic career ended, as she searched for the meaning she once found in competition. “To become the best in the world at what you do requires the kind of tunnel vision of a stalking beast,” she said in 1985. “Lots of people can tell you how high to jump, how fast to run, how deep to dive. But nobody tells you that you have to fit into that larger world.”