Full name Patricia Kempner Club Kristensen Swim School Weight 56 kg Height 1.60 m | National team United States Role Swimmer Nickname(s) "Patty" Name Patty Kempner | |
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Strokes Breaststroke, individual medley | ||
Patricia Kempner (born August 24, 1942) is an American former competition swimmer, Olympic champion, and former world record-holder in two events.
On April 27, 1957, she became the first woman to set an official world record in the 200-meter individual medley, clocking 2:48.2 at a swim meet in Chicago, Illinois. The record would survive for over a year.
At the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, she won a gold medal by swimming the breaststroke leg for the first-place U.S. team in the women's 4×100-meter medley relay, together with teammates Lynn Burke (backstroke), Carolyn Schuler (butterfly), and Chris von Saltza (freestyle). The U.S medley relay team set a new world record in the event final of 4:41.1. Individually, she also competed in the women's 200-meter breaststroke, finishing seventh in the event final.