Kathy Ellis
American Olympic champion and former world record holder.
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Kathleen Ellis, also known as Kathy Hood and Kathy Landsgraf, is an American former competition swimmer who won two gold medals at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. She set world records in the 4×100-meter freestyle and medley relays and held world records in three events during her career.
Early swimming
Ellis was born in Indianapolis, Indiana to Mr. and Mrs. Donald Ellis, avid golfers who wanted her and her sister Maddie to learn to swim. She began swimming with the Indianapolis Athletic Club in elementary school.
When her coach Gene Lee moved to the Riviera Club in 1962, Ellis and her sister followed. At age 14, she won her first National Championship in the 100-yard butterfly in 1961. At the 1963 U.S. Nationals, she set a world record in the 100-meter butterfly with a time of 1:06.5.
1964 Tokyo Olympics
Kathy Ellis earned her spot on the 1964 U.S. Olympic team at the trials in Queens, New York, on August 29, 1964. She finished second in the 100-meter freestyle with a time of 1:00.4, just one-tenth of a second behind world record holder Sharon Stouder. Her sister Maddie missed qualifying for the team by the same narrow margin. The head women’s coach for the Games was Peter Daland.
At the Tokyo Olympics, the 17-year-old Ellis won two gold medals as part of the U.S. women’s 4×100-meter freestyle and 4×100-meter medley relay teams, both setting world records. She also earned bronze medals in the 100-meter freestyle (1:00.8) and the 100-meter butterfly (1:06.0). In the freestyle relay, she swam the anchor leg alongside Stouder, Lillian “Pokey” Watson, and Donna de Varona. The medley relay team—Cathy Ferguson, Cynthia Goyette, Stouder, and Ellis on anchor—finished in a world-record 4:33.9.
After the Olympics, Ellis attended Indiana University, graduating in 1969 with a nursing degree. She was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta. Though she trained for a time, she did not compete collegiately; women’s swimming scholarships were not available then, and she had no interest in synchronized swimming, the only women’s team sport at Indiana. She married after college and became Kathy Ellis Hood.
Career statistics and honours
Medals
- Gold Olympic Games — 1964 Tokyo 4×100 m medley
- Bronze Olympic Games — 1964 Tokyo 100 m butterfly
- Gold Pan American Games — 1963 São Paulo 100 m butterfly
- Bronze Pan American Games — 1963 São Paulo 100 m freestyle
Tables copied from the source article, totals included as the source gives them: Wikipedia: Kathy Ellis (CC BY-SA 4.0). Wide tables scroll sideways.
Did You Know?
- At her first U.S. Olympic Trials in 1960 in Detroit, Michigan, at age 13, she finished tenth in the 100-meter butterfly, missing the eight-person final.
- Her sister Maddie later won a gold medal at the 1967 World University Games.
More in Swimming & Water Sports
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Kathy Ellis (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Statistics, medals and awards: the tables of the source article.
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