Poynton, Dorothy (1915—)

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Poynton, Dorothy (1915—)

American springboard and platform diver. Name variations: Dorothy Poynton-Hill or Dorothy Poynton Hill. Born Dorothy Poynton in Portland, Oregon, on July 17, 1915; married.

At age 13, was the youngest American ever to win an Olympic medal, taking the silver in springboard diving (1928) at the Amsterdam Olympics; won Olympic gold medals in platform diving (1932, 1936) and the bronze medal in springboard diving (1936); ran the Dorothy Poynton Swim Club in Los Angeles.

Dorothy Poynton, who was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1915, loved to entertain. She danced at the Orpheum Theater in Portland until the Board of Education complained that she was neglecting her studies. After her parents moved the family to Los Angeles, she gave diving and dancing exhibitions at the Ambassador Hotel. Poynton and her coach Roger Cornell thought up a variety of acts, including a dive they dubbed the Monte Cristo. The seven-year-old girl would be placed in a sack, then dropped off a ten-foot diving board. Since pool water was quite murky in those days, and the audience could not see her, Poynton could unfasten the snaps of the sack, swim to a diving bell with air, and stay there while the audience grew more and more restive.

Poynton was then asked to represent the Hollywood Athletic Club coached by Clyde Swenson. Practicing three times a week, she entered her first meet in Detroit at age 12, where she lost first place by one-tenth of a point. When Stanford swimming coach Ernie Brandsten told Poynton she would make the Olympic team, Poynton was bewildered; she had never heard of the Olympics. In 1928, the 13-year-old was the youngest athlete on the ship headed to Amsterdam. On board, homesickness swept over her. Helen Meany won the gold, but Poynton won a silver in springboard diving, the youngest American athlete to win a medal.

After the 1928 Olympics, Poynton went on to win National championships, becoming a strong platform diver. The day before the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, however, she hit her head and was rushed to the emergency room; a doctor advised her not to compete. But her parents had missed her performance in Amsterdam for lack of funds, and Poynton did not want to disappoint them. Rather, she did a 16' dive and went on to win a gold in platform diving.

By 1936, Poynton was a seasoned Olympic athlete who planned to turn professional as soon as the competition in the Berlin Olympics ended. She had already agreed to future commitments to endorse Camel cigarettes, bathing suits, and other products, and the pressure to perform was enormous. Poynton triumphed, however, with another gold in platform diving and a bronze in springboard.

Realizing the commercial opportunities available to star athletes, in 1952 she and her husband built the Dorothy Poynton Swim Club in Los Angeles and advertised that she could teach anyone to swim in ten lessons. Students, she stated, would be water safe, go off the board, and swim the length of the pool. The rich and famous brought their children for lessons, and she never had a single failure. "I can't do anything half-way …," said Poynton. "I can't do anything unless I do it better than anyone else."