Donna de Varona

1947-

American swimmer

When she qualified for the U.S. swim team for the 1960 Summer Olympic Games in Rome, Donna de Varona was only 13 years old, the youngest member of the Games that year. Four years later she won two gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics. She remains a world record holder in numerous events, including the sport's most challenging one, the 400-meter individual

medley, and the 100-meter backstroke. The individual medley requires enormous strength, flexibility, and endurance; competitors must swim four 100-meter laps, one for each stroke, including backstroke, freestyle (crawl), butterfly, and breast. Always up for a challenge, it is no surprise that the individual medley was always de Varona's favorite event. De Varona went on to become ABC's first full-time female sportscaster. In a controversial legal dispute, de Varona sued ABC Sports, charging age and gender discrimination. That battle won, she continues her award-winning career as a broadcast sports journalist.

Team Member "0"

De Varona was raised in Southern California by a family she has characterized as tightly knit and supportive. Her father, David, was an insurance salesman and a former All-American football player and rower At the University of California who encouraged his four children in athletics. De Varona's sister, Joanna Kerns, (best known for her role as the mother on ABC's Growing Pains ) studied gymnastics until she took up acting, as did sister Sandra. Brother David joined Little League until a knee jury sidelined him and he took up swimming.

Young Donna had been eager to play baseball with her brother and the neighborhood boys but was denied the chance due to her gender. "I spent all my money on bubble gum so I could bribe my way into the Little League," she said in an interview with Women's Sports & Fitness magazine. But all she got for her effort was a uniform with the number "0" on it and the privilege of retrieving the team's bats. She stored that memory, which motivated her to fight for equality later.

Swimming gave the spirited youth the outlet she needed. "I got in trouble until I started to swim," de Varona admitted to Women's Sports & Fitness. As an adolescent, she trained with some of the sport's top coaches, including George Haines, the legendary coach of seven U.S. Olympic teams between 1960 and 1984. She was soon committed athletically and academically, maintaining a B average while training up to six hours a day.

Chronology

When de Varona returned to the Olympic team in 1964, the 17-year-old had broken 18 world swimming records and ten American records while capturing two gold medals at the Summer Games in Tokyo. In winning the 400-meter individual medley, de Varona set a world record of 5:18.7. She and teammates Sharon Stouder, Pokey Watson and Kathy Ellis won the gold in the 400-meter freestyle relay, another record-breaking achievement at 4:03.8. But even before the Olympics, the blonde de Varona had come to define swimming in America. She had appeared on the cover of newspapers and magazines such as Life, Time, Saturday Evening Post, and Sports Illustrated.

She enrolled in the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and majored in political science. Like most colleges of the time, UCLA had no women's athletics department. Seeing that she couldn't compete for a college team, de Varona formally retired from swimming. This freed her to accept a job with ABC, which had previously consulted the young student about where they should focus their cameras. While under contract with ABC and while still at UCLA, de Varona volunteered in the government-funded program Operation Champ, which worked with inner-city children. De Varona testified before Congress advocating government's continued and increased funding of programs for kids. Suddenly, she realized she was learning so much outside of college that she left, two finals short of her degree.

Broadcasting Beckons

In 1964, the Associated Press and United Press International voted de Varona most outstanding female athlete in the world. At the 1965 men's Amateur Athletic Union national championships, she made her debut in swimming commentary for ABC's Wide World of Sports with Jim McKay. She was a trailblazer at age 17, the first female network television sportscaster.

She became host, special reporter, and analyst for many of the network's high-profile programs, including ABC Sports and ABC News. She covered the Summer Olympics for ABC from 1968 to 1976, and again in 1984 and 1996, and the Winter Olympics in 1984, 1988, and 1994. From 1978 to 1983, she worked for the NBC network on Sports-world and the sports segments of the Today Show. As part of the team of journalists telecasting the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics for Turner Network Television, de Varona, who presented feature stories on female athletes, was instrumental in the cable network's exceptional ratings.

The former Olympic champion received a prestigious Emmy Award, for her coverage of an athlete competing in the 1991 Special Olympics. Seven years later she received an Emmy nomination for Keepers of the Flame, an ABC Olympic television special, which she co-produced, wrote, and narrated.

De Varona in 1994 provided extensive coverage of the feud between American figure skaters Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan . (In January, Harding's boyfriend, Jeff Gillooly, clubbed Kerrigan in the knees in an attempt to eliminate her from the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. Harding claimed to have no foreknowledge of the event.) De Varona appeared on ABC's World News Tonight, Good Morning America, Weekend News, ABC's Wide World of Sports, and various talk shows. She also followed the story to Norway, and covered the athletic events. Two years later, when the Summer Olympics were in Atlanta, de Varona anchored Good Morning America 's Olympic coverage, while broadcasting the days' results on ABC Radio.

Since 1998, de Varona has been a weekly commentator for Sporting News Radio, a 24-hour sports radio network. De Varona covered her 12th Olympic Games in 2000 when she signed on with NBC for the Games in Sydney, Australia. At those Games, the International Olympic Committee presented de Varona with its highest award, the Olympic Order.

Awards and Accomplishments

Asterisk After Her Name

De Varona has been active in a variety of organizations and committees. She has been an adviser to President Ford's Commission on Olympic Sports and President Carter's Women's Advisory Commission, and served five terms on the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. From its inception in 1969, to 1988, de Varona has sat on the board of the Special Olympics. She was also consultant on Title IX legislation, which became law in 1972 and prohibits sex discrimination in sports. She finally earned her degree in 1986 upon completion of two assignments: one on the history of amateur sports legislation and the other on the impact on women's sports of Title IX.

Shortly after the adoption of Title IX, de Varona and tennis champion Billie Jean King founded the Women's Sports Foundation in 1974, de Varona serving as its first president. "The effort I had put forth in my swimming career gave me the stamina to become an activist for Olympic athletes and women, raising money and awareness," de Varona told USA Swimming online. "The world is political and you have to fight. Once you've been able to reach goals, like winning Olympic gold medals, no one can take that effort away. That accomplishment opens doors. It's like having an asterisk after your name." De Varona has received dozens of honorary degrees and awards, including the National Collegiate Athletic Association's highest honor, the Theodore Roosevelt Award.

A $50 Million Lawsuit

In April 1998, ABC did not renew de Varona's contract. Their reason for firing her was, allegedly, her "failing to appeal to a male demographic of ages eighteen to thirty-nine." Charging age and gender discrimination under federal law, de Varona shot back with a $50 million lawsuit. In her complaint, de Varona asserted that male veteran colleagues, such as Frank Gifford , then 69, received preferential assignments. "It took a lot of soul-searching," de Varona told People. "It would have been much easier to walk away, but I felt I had to do it."

The suit was settled out of court in 2002, and de Varona rejoined ABC Sports as a commentator and reporter.

Fights for Women's Sports

De Varona left ABC once before, in 1976, after facing what she termed "discriminatory barriers" as a female sportscaster. The NBC network soon swept her up. ABC Sports enticed her back in 1983, when de Varona assumed a management position and went on to cover such events as the Harding-Kerrigan scandal, the New York City Marathon, the Indianapolis 500 auto race, and several Olympic Games.

De Varona has never backed down from supporting justice for women in amateur and professional athletics. "I will always be an activist," she told Women's Sports and Fitness. "That is a lifetime commitment."

CONTACT INFORMATION

Address: c/o Women's Sports Foundation, Eisenhower Park, East Meadow, NY 11554. Fax: 1-800-227-3988. Email: [email protected]. Online: www.womenssportsfoundation.org.

Where Is She Now?

These days, de Varona balances her life between broadcasting, family, and women's advocacy. She has been writing commentary for Sporting News Radio, and working as a sports and organizational consultant for the ABC, ESPN, and Disney networks.

The former Olympian chaired the 1999 Women's World Cup Soccer Organizing Committee, which resulted in what some have called "the most successful women's sporting event ever," according to Marty Benson of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Still, de Varona believes the media gives women short shrift. "I thought as cable permeated the airwaves that women's sports would get a better piece of the action," she told NCAA's Benson, adding, "I'm frustrated that we don't read, hear, and see more about women's sports." De Varona, who remains active as chair of the Women's Sports Foundation's Board of Stewards, is still an honorary trustee for the Foundation. Most recently, de Varona was awarded the Over-coming Obstacles award from the Community for Education Foundation, given to those who have achieved professional excellence and fostered growth within their sphere of expertise.

De Varona and her husband, John Pinto, a lawyer, live in Greenwich, Connecticut. The couple have two teenage children, John David and Joanna, both of whom participate in sports.

SELECTED WRITINGS BY DE VARONA:

(With Barry Tarshis) Donna de Varona's Hydro-Aerobics, New York: Fawcett, 1986.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Books

Johnson, Anne Janette. Great Women in Sports, Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 1996.

Pemberton, Cynthia Lee A. More Than a Game: One Woman's Fight for Gender Equity in Sport. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2002.

Periodicals

"Donna de Varona Receives NCAA's Highest Honor; 2003 Theodore Roosevelt Award." PR Newswire (December 5, 2002).

Grossman, Andrew. "De Varona Plans to Return to ABC as Lawsuit Is Settled." Hollywood Reporter (October 1, 2002): 4.

"Making Waves: Olympian Donna de Varona Charges ABC Fired Her because of Her Age." People (May 15, 2000): 89.

Schneider, Michael. "De Varona Accuses ABC of Bias." Variety (April 17, 2000): 47.

Other

"Donna de Varona Receives NCAA's Highest Honor: 2003 Theodore Roosevelt Award." NCAA. www.ncaa.org/ (December 30, 2002).

"Donna de Varona Rejoins ABC Sports." ABC Sports. espn.go.com/(December 30, 2002).

Geocities.com. www.geocities.com/ (January 10, 2003).

Hickok Sports.com. www.hickoksports.com/ (December 30, 2002).

Hiss & Pop. www.hissandpop.com/ (January 10, 2003).

HOBY Organization. www.hoby.org/ (January 13, 2003).

Hollywood.com. www.hollywood.com/ (January 10, 2003).

Internet Movie Database. www.imdb.com/ (January 10, 2003).

Olympic Aid. www.olympicaid.org/ (January 10, 2003).

Rogers, Roger. "The Players Who Are the NSA." Women's Soccer World, www.womensoccer.com/ (January 11, 2003).

Schwimmverein Limmat. www.svl.ch/ (January 11, 2003).

Sporting News Radio. radio.sportingnews.com/(December 30, 2002).

Swingin Chicks. www.swinginchicks.com/ (December 30, 2002).

USA Swimming. www.usa-swimming.org/ (December 30, 2002).

Women's Sports Foundation. www.womenssportsfoundation.org/ (January 13, 2003).

Yahoo! Movies, movies.yahoo.com/(January 10, 2003).

Sketch by Jane Summer

Donna de Varona: 1947—: Olympic swimmer, sportscaster, activist

Olympic swimmer Donna de Varona has had a rich and varied career. She won two gold medals in the 1964 Olympics, and was one of the first women hired as a sports reporter for a major television network. A dedicated activist on behalf of women in sports, de Varona helped found the Women's Sports Foundation and has testified before Congress on issues related to women in sports. She has held advisory positions to five U.S. presidents since 1966.

Donna de Varona was born in April of 1947 in San Diego, California. Her father, David de Varona, was a Hall-of-Fame rower and an All-American football player for the University of California. As her first swimming coach, he encouraged de Varona to develop her swimming ability, and made sure that she attended meets. De Varona's mother, Martha, was also warm and supportive of her interests.

Won Two Gold Medals Before Twenty

Initially, de Varona wanted to play Little League baseball, like her beloved older brother David. She loved the game so much that in elementary school, she chose the desk closest to the door so she could be the first one out on the field when the bell rang to signal the end of class.

However, because she was a girl, and Little League was only open to boys at the time, she was barred from any position other than "bat girl." She quickly became bored with spending her time at every game on the sidelines. As she told Marty Benson in the NCAA News, "Being that close and not being able to play hurt too much." When David injured a knee and switched to swimming, she followed him to a new sport. de Varona's ability in the pool was readily apparent, since even as a young child, she had always been a strong swimmer. She entered her first meet when she was nine, and soon outgrew her father's coaching, becoming a protege of some of California's best coaches. She specialized in the difficult 400-meter medley, in which competitors swim four laps, each in a different stroke: freestyle, butterfly, breast stroke, and back stroke. In 1960, when she was 13, she qualified for the U.S. Olympic team in that event. She was the youngest member of the American team that year, and loved the excitement of traveling to Rome with the other athletes. Unfortunately, her event was canceled and she did not compete.

During high school, de Varona trained up to six hours a day, but managed to maintain a B average in her studies. In 1964 she qualified for the Olympic team again, and won a gold medal in the 400-meter medley. As a member of the 400-meter freestyle relay team, she then won another gold medal.

At a Glance . . .

Born Donna de Varona in April of 1947, in San Diego, California; daughter of David and Martha de Varona; married John Pinto (a lawyer and investment banker); children: John David, Joanna. Education: University of California-Los Angeles, BA, political science, 1986.

Career: Swimmer, 1960-64; ABC, Wide World of Sports, Olympics broadcaster, 1968, 1972, 1976; NBC, Sports World, Today Show, broadcaster, 1978-83; commentator, consultant, writer, coproducer, contributor: Wide World of Sports, ABC News, Good Morning America, ESPN, ABC radio, 1984; Roone Arledge, president of ABC News and Sports, ABC, assistant, 1983-86; NBC, Olympics, broadcaster, 1996, 2000; Sporting News Radio, radio sports commentator, 1998–; Sporting News, Olympics reporter, 2002.

Selected awards: Winner of 37 U.S. swimming championships, 1960-64; gold medals in swimming, Pan-American Games 1963; gold medals, 400-meter medley and 400-meter freestyle relay, Olympic Games, 1964; Associated Press and United Press International Most Outstanding Female Athlete, 1965; Emmy Award, 1991; Gracie Award from American Women in Radio and Television, 2000, 2001; Susan B. Anthony "Trailblazer" Award, 2001; inductee: International Swimming Hall of Fame; U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame; Women's Sports Hall of Fame.

Address: Office— Sporting News Radio, P.O. Box 509, Techny, IL 60082.

After setting 18 world swimming records, de Varona retired from competitive swimming in 1965. She retired largely because she was now in college at the University of California-Los Angeles, and the school, like most other universities at the time, had no athletic programs for women. With bills to pay de Varona had to spend her spare time working, and she began looking around for work that would use her interest in and knowledge of sports. Undeterred by the fact that at the time, all the sportscasters on the major television networks were male, she used her Olympic experience to her advantage, and became the first female broadcaster on the ABC network's Wide World of Sports. After graduating from college, she decided to make a career in broadcasting.

Became a Reporter and Activist

Despite her early success with ABC, it was difficult for de Varona to find work in her male-dominated field. She traveled all over the United States, filling in temporarily when regular anchormen became ill or went on vacation. Eventually, she found permanent work as an Olympic reporter with NBC and ABC.

During the 1970s, de Varona also became involved in activism for the cause of women's sports. She was a founding member of the Women's Sports Foundation, and in 1975 she served on President Ford's Commission on Olympic Sports. She also testified on behalf of Title IX legislation in front of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Title IX legislation ultimately ensured that girls and women received the same opportunities and federal funding in sports education that boys and men did. According to an article in Great Women in Sports, de Varona told a Women's Sports and Fitness writer, "I will always be an activist. That is a lifetime commitment."

De Varona began covering the Olympics in 1972, and would report on the 1976 and 1984 Olympic Games for ABC. According to Great Women in Sports, she told a Women's Sports and Fitness reporter that the 1984 Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia were the most difficult for her: "I was there by myself, no producer, no assignments. I hustled everything myself. I just went out, grabbed a crew, did spots and wrote stories. That was my test because I was just back at ABC and we were in a crisis situation with the problems of scheduling and snow."

Clashed With ABC

Though de Varona received critical acclaim for her coverage of the 1984 Summer Olympics, choice assignments were few and far between. She told Sally Jenkins in Sports Illustrated, "I don't feel the rewards [I should have gotten] came after that. You do good work, and then wait and wait for another good assignment." However, she also noted that despite the widespread discrimination against women in sportscasting, "It's too easy to play the victim. We're making progress. It's coming. It's just taking longer than I ever thought it would."

In 1988 de Varona continued her Olympic coverage when she reported from Calgary. She also expanded her career by working for Turner Network Television and Sporting News Radio. In 1991 de Varona won an Emmy award for her reporting of a story about a Special Olympics athlete.

In 1998 ABC let de Varona's contract lapse and, according to de Varona, encouraged her to leave. In People, de Varona told a reporter that the network was trying to attract more of the [age] "18-to-39 male market" and that network executives believed that she was too old to hold this audience's interest. In 2000 she filed an age-discrimination suit against ABC, arousing controversy in the sports broadcasting world. Of her decision to take legal action against ABC, she told People magazine, "It would have been much easier to walk away, but I felt I had to do it." The case was later settled out of court, and de Varona resumed working at ABC.

Declaring her candidacy for the presidency of the U.S. Olympic Committee in 2002, de Verona withdrew from the race after six days. According to Mer-Jo Borzilleri in an article provided by the Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, de Varona said that "time and resources" did not allow her to give the job the attention it would require. In addition, she noted that it would probably create a conflict of interest for her to report on the Olympics at the same time that she was serving as president of the Olympic committee, and she did not want to stop reporting. However, she also said that she would reconsider running for the position in 2004. In 2003 de Varona was selected to receive the NCAA's highest honor, the Theodore Roosevelt Award. The award, also known as the "Teddy," is given to a distinguished citizen who is a former college student-athlete and who shows a continuing interest in physical fitness and sport.

Controversy Over Title IX

Later in 2003 de Varona took a controversial position regarding the Title IX legislation she had been instrumental in creating during the 1970s. President George Bush had asked Education Secretary Rod Paige to establish a commission to determine whether the legislation should be altered. The commission recommended making certain controversial changes to the legislation; according to Women's E-News the Save Title IX campaign, which opposed the changes, said they would cost high school girls 305,000 opportunities to participate in sports; college women would miss 50,000 participation opportunities as well as $122 million in athletic scholarships.

Opposed to the changes, de Varona, who served on the commission, and another commission member, Julie Foudy, refused to sign the commission's list of propositions for change. As a result, Secretary Paige subsequently announced that he would only consider recommendations for change that won unanimous support from the commission.

In addition to her political work on behalf of women's sports, de Varona continues to work as a broadcaster for Sporting News Radio. On the radio network's website, a press release noted, "Each week [de Varona's] commentary explores and highlights the positive stories of athletes, coaches and the people who support them. She brings to light the behind-the-scenes achievements that often go unnoticed." Summing up her goals in life, de Varona told Marty Benson in the NCAA News, "My passion is to see as many opportunities as possible for as many people as possible, all the way from the grass-roots level to the colleges."

Sources

Books

Great Women in Sports, Visible Ink Press, 1996.

Periodicals

Broadcasting and Cable, April 17, 2000, p. 69.

Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, July 19, 2002, p. K7770; February 25, 2003, p. K2941.

People, May 15, 2000, p. 89.

Sports Illustrated, June 17, 1991, p. 78.

Women's E-News, March 11, 2003, p. 0.

On-line

"Donna de Varona," NCAA News, www.ncaa.org (May 7, 2003).

"Donna de Varona," Sporting News Radio, http://radio.sportingnews.com/experts/donna_de_ varona/index.html (May 15, 2003).

"Sporting News Radio's Donna de Varona wins second-consecutive Gracie Allen Award," Sporting News Radio, http://radio.sportingnews.com/about /pres/20010426_donna.html (June 4, 2003).

—Kelly Winters

DE VARONA, Donna

(b. 26 April 1947 in San Diego, California), two-time gold medalist in swimming at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics who set eighteen world swimming records before she retired from competition in 1964. She helped launch the Women's Sports Foundation and became a vocal and articulate champion of women's rights in the athletic domain.

de Varona was raised in Lafayette, California, near San Francisco. Her father, David de Varona, who sold insurance, was a Hall of Fame rower and an All-America football player at the University of California who served as de Varona's first swimming coach. Her mother, Martha (Smith) de Varona, was a retail sales associate. She had three siblings. Not surprisingly, being raised near the waters of the Pacific Ocean, de Varona was paddling by the age of three and diving at the age of seven. She especially enjoyed training with her elder brother in Olympic-size pools. During the 1950s and the 1960s athletic opportunities for women, much less young girls, were few and far between. While there were college athletic scholarships for superior female athletes, the vast number of girls were denied athletic and sports opportunities. Though she did not receive a scholarship, de Varona earned an undergraduate degree in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Setback and loss have motivated de Varona all her life. As a ten-year-old she entered the Far Western American Athletic Union meet in San Francisco and finished dead last. This beating gave her the incentive to do what were then phenomenal training stints—five and six hours a day—at the Berkeley Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) swim club and at the famous Santa Clara Swim Club. Then, at the age of thirteen, she first broke a world record in the 400-meter individual medley event at the Outdoor National Amateur Athletic Union Championship. To this day the medley is seen, arguably, as the most demanding of all swim events. It is like a quadrathlon, in that the four different strokes have to be performed in sequence, with the end race scenario being a frantic battle to retain stroke cadence as one drowns, "physiologically," in a sea of lactic acid. Indeed, the race was so much a cutting-edge event that it was not included in the program at the 1960 Rome Olympics. Nevertheless, the thirteen-year-old de Varona was a reserve for the U.S. swim team and the youngest American team member of the Olympics.

de Varona became a sensation. She later remarked on the fun and also the pressure of her early fame—being endlessly interviewed, photographed, and held up for scrutiny by a vast array of American magazines, ranging from the serious adult weekly to the glossy teenage comic. Celebrity status and her role as the quintessential Californian mermaid had both positive and negative consequences for her. In her life she has been featured on the cover of Life, Time, the Saturday Evening Post, and Sports Illustrated (twice).

At the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the 400-meter individual relay was on the program. de Varona won the event, and she also swam on the 4 by 100–meter freestyle relay team that won a gold medal. For this tandem success she was recognized as the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year for 1964. During her career she won thirty-seven individual national championship medals, including eighteen gold medals and three national high-point awards. She held world records in eight long-course events and American records in ten short-course events. In biography after biography her sobriquet is the "Queen of Swimming."

As a keynote speaker at the 1982 meeting of the International Olympic Academy in Olympia, Greece, de Varona reflected on the media attention she received as an Olympic athlete: "In 1964, there were many sponsors who wanted me to endorse their products, but because of ingrained Olympic ideals I felt my gold medals were not for sale." Instead, de Varona sought opportunities to create programs that would promote the sport. Following her retirement from competitive swimming in 1964, de Varona embarked on a multifaceted career. In 1965 she became the first woman to cover sports on network television for the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) program Wide World of Sports. A teenage American female's having the opportunity to appear on a major channel and present "sports" to a prime-time audience cannot be underestimated. Stories about the achievements of male athletes usually dominated such sports programs. The role of women and female accomplishments appeared, if at all, on the margins. The female athlete was treated as less than important, and repeatedly the sporting woman was trivialized.

Despite de Varona contributing color commentaries throughout the 1960s and at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City—and for that matter through the 1970s and the 1980s—the narrator and commentator Jim McKay remained the featured figure on the program. In hindsight, de Varona's media contributions have to be seen as minor, and she was never able to become an influential commentator on par with such broadcast news anchors as Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw, and Dan Rather. Nevertheless, it is important to note her pioneering contributions to sports broadcasting and the fact that she provided color commentary at consecutive Summer Olympics from 1968 to 1996. She coanchored the late-night wrap-up at the Los Angeles Olympics (1984), and she joined the ABC Eyewitness News team in New York, following up with stints at NBC Sports and the Today Show. de Varona married John Pinto on 10 January 1987; they have two children. In 1991, when she received a Gold Medallion from the International Swimming Hall of Fame (ISHOF), a press release from the ISHOF listed her job as vice president of ABC Sports. de Varona worked for the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, did weekly reports for Sporting News Radio, and in 2000 and 2001 received back-to-back Gracie Allen Awards for excellence in broadcasting.

de Varona, who was unable to get a college swimming scholarship after winning two Olympic gold medals, was a major advocate of the 1972 Title IX legislation, which prohibits sex discrimination in sports. In 1974 she and the tennis champion Billie Jean King cofounded the Women's Sports Foundation, and it continues to be an extraordinarily persuasive voice for encouraging women to participate in sports and to fight to achieve gender equality in sport. de Varona has served on special commissions for Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan and is a tireless spokesperson at international Olympic congresses. She worked tirelessly with Eunice Kennedy Shriver in the late 1960s to create the Special Olympics movement, which embraces children and adults with developmental disabilities. de Varona was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1969. Janet Woolom nicely summarizes de Varona's lifelong contribution: "She had a profound impact on increasing opportunities for women in all levels of sports."

Biographical essays on de Varona include Shawn Ladda's entry in Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, Sports Figures (2002), and Janet Woolom's profile in Outstanding Women Athletes (1992). The ABC Wide World of Sports (highlights of 1960s, 1970s and 1980s) compilation is available from CBS/Fox Video Sports. The Proceedings of the twenty-second session of the International Olympic Academy (11–25 July 1982) contain a full version of de Varona's conference keynote speech, entitled "Partnership Between the Athletes and Organizations of the Olympic Movement."

Scott A. G. M. Crawford

DE VARONA, Donna

(b. 20 April 1947 in San Diego, California), two-time Olympic gold medalist in swimming, founding member of the Women's Sports Foundation, and television sportscasting pioneer.

De Varona grew up in Lafayette, California, near San Francisco, with her parents, David de Varona, an insurance salesman, and Martha Smith de Varona, a retail sales associate, and three siblings. De Varona was an active, athletic child who participated in many sports. But she was frustrated that the Little League baseball enjoyed by her older brother did not allow girls to play. As an adult, she lamented in a magazine interview, "I spent all my money on bubble gum so I could bribe my way into the Little League, and I wound up with a uniform with number '0' on it. I picked up the bats." De Varona's frustration with gender inequality in sports led to her efforts later in life to change the system.

Her main sports focus as an adolescent became swimming. Her father, a celebrated rower and All-American football player at the University of California, was her first coach. She entered her first competitive swim meet at age nine. In 1960, at age thirteen, she qualified as an alternate on the U.S. Olympic swimming team. She participated in the 1960 Olympics in Rome, Italy, as the team's youngest member, a significant achievement even though her event was canceled.

Between the Rome games and the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, de Varona also trained in the backstroke, butterfly, and freestyle, setting world records. At the 1964 games she won the first-ever 400-meter medley, in which competitors swam four laps (one each of the breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly, and freestyle), setting a world record. She was also a member of the gold-medal-winning team in the 400-meter freestyle relay. At age seventeen, after the 1964 Olympic Games, de Varona retired from competitive swimming. During her swimming career she won thirty-seven individual national titles and set eighteen national and world records.

De Varona is considered not only one of the fastest swimmers, but also one of the most versatile and best all-around swimmers. These thirty-seven individual national championships were won using three different strokes including freestyle, backstroke, and butterfly. In addition she set eight long-course (fifty-meter pool) world records and ten short-course (twenty-five-yard pool) American records.

De Varona graduated from Santa Clara High School in 1965. She began her broadcasting career at age seventeen, when she was hired to be a part of a live telecast for the Senior Men's National Swimming and Diving Championships. That year, as an undergraduate at the University of California, Los Angeles, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) hired de Varona as the first female sports-caster on a television network (she would return to earn a B.S. in political science in 1986). She also appeared on ABC's Wide World of Sports. De Varona widened her scope by juggling roles as host, co-host, special reporter, and analyst during some of ABC's premiere events, and was the first woman to cover the Olympics on television, including six Olympic Summer Games from 1968 to 1996, and four Olympic Winter Games from 1980 to 1994. In addition, she served as the first female host of the 1980 Olympic coverage in Moscow, Russia. In 1998, she joined the TNT coverage at the Nagano Winter Olympics, hosting with Jim Lampley as they did at the 1984 Games. De Varona continued a successful career in broadcasting for the next twenty years, covering many sports and the Olympics for cable networks as well as for ABC and NBC. She won an Emmy Award in 1991 for her report on a Special Olympics athlete. De Varona also co-produced, wrote, and hosted "Keepers of the Flame," a one-hour ABC Olympic television special that was nominated for an Emmy Award.

In April 2000, de Varona sued ABC Sports, claiming an unlawful termination because of age and sex. She maintained that executives warned her that her advancing age was a detriment because ABC wanted to reach a younger market. Later that year, de Varona joined NBC's Olympic coverage at the Sydney, Australia, Olympics, marking the broadcast of her twelfth Olympic Games. Since 1998, de Varona has provided weekly commentary for Sporting News Radio, the nation's largest sports radio network. She received the Gracie Allen Award for excellence in broadcasting in 2000 and 2001.

Throughout her athletic and broadcasting careers de Varona always championed fairness and increasing opportunities for women. In 1974 she and tennis star Billie Jean King joined forces to found the Women's Sports Foundation, an organization dedicated to encouraging girls and women to participate in sports and demanding gender equality in sport. De Varona testified in 1972 in both the Senate and the House to help pass Title IX legislation, and she also supported the Amateur Sports Act of 1978. She served on two presidential commissions, Gerald Ford's Commission on Olympic Sports in 1975, and Jimmy Carter's Women's Advisory Commission. She also served five times on the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.

De Varona married John Pinto, an investment banker, on 10 January 1987; they had two children. In 1996 de Varona was a recipient of the Flo Hyman Award at the Tenth Annual National Girls and Women in Sport Day. In 1999 she was named as the chair of the organizing committee for the women's World Cup soccer tournament. De Varona was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1969, the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame, and the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1987. As an outstanding young athlete, a champion of equal rights for women in the sports arena, and a highly visible presence in the media, de Varona made a significant impact on the world of women's sports.

During her swimming career, de Varona appeared on the covers of Life (9 Oct. 1964), and several other national magazines. She wrote Hydro-Aerobics (1984), with Barry Tarshis. Several books highlight de Varona's accomplishments, including Anne Johnson, Great Women in Sports (1996), and K. Christensen, A. Guttman, and G. Pfister, International Encyclopedia of Women and Sports (2001). Three good online resources are the Women's Sports Foundation website at www.womensportsfoundation.org, the ISHOF website at www.ishof.org, and the Olympic Hall of Fame website at www.olympic-usa.org.

Shawn Ladda