Eleanor Holm

As a 14-year-old, Eleanor Holm finished fifth in the 100m backstroke in the 1928 Olympics. Four years later she won a gold medal at the Los Angeles Games. She made the Olympic team for a third time in 1936 as a married woman, having married the crooner, Art Jarrett, in 1933. But on the boat trip to Europe, the behavior of the attractive and vivacious reigning champion did not meet with the approval of the USOC officials and she was banned from the team-ostensibly for drinking champagne while in training. However, Holm-Jarrett stayed on in Berlin and reported the Games for the International News Service. On her return home she turned professional and her second marriage was to Billy Rose, the promoter of the aquacades in which she starred. She also appeared in one movie, a Tarzan flick which starred Olympic decathlete Glenn Morris. Despite the publicity she generated away from the pool, the eventual Eleanor Holm-Jarrett-Rose-Walker was undoubtedly a highly talented swimmer, having won a total of 29 AAU titles, nine of which came in the individual medley and setting seven world backstroke records.