Access the best of Getty Images with our simple subscription plan. Olympic swimmer Donna de Varona has had a rich and varied career. . I want to be part of that.As we cross into the open kitchen from the family room, de Varona hands me two glasses filled with water, no ice, as she plates two overstuffed sandwiches, one brimming with roast beef, the other with chicken salad, and leads me past a tower of newspapers on the counter into the dining room.Heres a simple diorama of how prepared she is, come what may. "People thought it was unusual for a female athlete to be attractive," she commented. In biography after biography her sobriquet is the "Queen of Swimming.". ", 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). Rogers, Roger. 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. At 13 she was the youngest athlete to have competed in the Olympics, the first female sportscaster in the United States and an activist for "clean" athletes and. De Varona has received dozens of honorary degrees and awards, including the National Collegiate Athletic Association's highest honor, the Theodore Roosevelt Award. Organisieren, kontrollieren, verteilen und messen Sie alle Ihre digitalen Inhalte. In 1999 she was named as the chair of the organizing committee for the women's World Cup soccer tournament. She was born on February 12, 1953 at San Francisco, California, United States. Sportscaster. Contemporary Hispanic Biography. However, she also noted that despite the widespread discrimination against women in sportscasting, "It's too easy to play the victim. The table is Emily Post perfect, all set for a formal dinner: white linen, crystal glasses, silverware and napkins.When I register surprise, she explains: Im always ready. SPOUSE. "De Varona Accuses ABC of Bias." Donna de Varona. The San Diego native broke 18 world records by the age of 17, and won two gold . At only 13-years-old, Donna de Varona was the youngest member of the 1960 Olympic swim team, but she competed only in the relay heats. Stories about the achievements of male athletes usually dominated such sports programs. Four years later at the Tokyo Games, de Varona won two gold medals . The NBC network soon swept her up. Her father, David Thomas DeVarona, was an insurance agent, and her mother, Martha Louise (ne Smith), was a clothing store manager. People (May 15, 2000): 89. ." De Varona also became a vocal proponent of the principles ultimately embodied in Title IX legislation guaranteeing that no one shall because of sex be denied participation in any educational program (including sports programs at educational institutions) receiving direct federal aid. Embed. Joanna is the daughter of Martha Louise and David Cruz Thomas de Varona. . 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. 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. A consultant to the United States Senate, de Varona took a leave of absence from her pioneering television career to help with the passage of the 1978 Amateur Sports Act which restructured how Olympic sports are governed in the United States. In 1972, she moved back to California and landed a job as a backup dancer at Disneyland, and started auditioning for TV commercials and steady acting jobs. Donna de Varona. Therefore, that information is unavailable for most Encyclopedia.com content. 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. 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. Joannas maternal grandmother was Lenora Kame Helwig (the daughter of Rhinehold Fisher Helwig and Ella Fisher Campbell). Rhinehold was born in Holidaysburg, Pennsylvania, to German parents, John Helwig. de Varona's ability in the pool was readily apparent, since even as a young child, she had always been a strong swimmer. During the 1970s, de Varona also became involved in activism for the cause of women's sports. 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. Boards are the best place to save images and video clips. Olympic athletes are the soldiers for a philosophy of connection and common ground in the world. Sports medicine is a distinct, Questions of sexuality and gender have been central to the history of physical education since the introduction of the discipline into U.S. colleges, DeFrantz, Anita 1952 The photographs picture de Varona and her husband, John Pinto, with their two grown children, John and Joanna, and with the likes of the Clintons, senators Ted Stevens and Ted Kennedy, Frank Gifford and Joe Namath, her actress sister Joanna Kerns and close friend Prince Albert of Monaco.Along the same wall as the medals are trophy shelves, overwhelming in their scope of awards: five honorary doctorates, silver Olympic order for leadership in the Olympic movement, outstanding radio commentator and sports journalism award. Encyclopedia.com. De Varona graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles with a B.A. I'd like to. Gender: Female Race or Ethnicity: White . In August 2019, Kerns filed for divorce from Appleton. Find Donna De Varona stock photos and editorial news pictures from Getty Images. She brings to light the behind-the-scenes achievements that often go unnoticed." Profession: Actor, Television Director, Film director. De Varona testified before Congress advocating government's continued and increased funding of programs for kids. At age 13, Donna de Varona was the youngest member of the United States swimming team at the Olympic Games Rome 1960. . in political science in 1986. Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Four years later, at the Tokyo Olympics, she won two gold medalsin the 400-metre individual medley and in the 4 100-metre freestyle relayand by age 17 she had broken 18 world records in swimming. "De Varona, Donna [6][7], Kerns dated comedian and actor Freddie Prinze a short time before he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. On May 4, 1977, she made an appearance on Charlie's Angels as Natalie, a worker at a massage parlor in the episode "The Blue Angels". Retrieved February 22, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/de-varona-donna-0. Later Mike makes another inside joke which makes reference to his mom looking like Olympic swimmer Donna de Varona. "[11], In 1986, de Varona graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She is Movies (Actress) by profession. All Rights Reserved. Box 509, Techny, IL 60082. Donna de Varona. 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. In 1965, became the first woman on network TV as a sports broadcaster. Most online reference entries and articles do not have page numbers. 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. Gender: Female Race or Ethnicity: White Sexual orientation: Straight Occupation: Swimm. 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. see the women who want to participate in sports, either for recreation or as a living, be treated with the same respect by the general public, by the press, by television, and so on, as male athletes. Now I want to see it happen for other people.". Caroline was born in Pennsylvania, to German parents, Michael Kappler and Caroline Ackerman. Property Value; dbo:Person/height: 167.64000000000001; dbo:Person/weight: 60.7824; dbo:abstract [2], Growing up, Kerns was constantly in competition with Donna. Actress Joanna Kerns and sister Donna DeVarona the 'Salute to Fashion on TV' Gala Fashion Show on April 26, 1990 at Plaza Hotel in New York City, New. Encyclopedia.com. Powered by - Designed with theHueman theme. Kerns ye la tercer fa de cuatro. The case was later settled out of court, and de Varona resumed working at ABC. www.geocities.com/ (January 10, 2003). Discover Donna DeVarona's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/de-varona-donna-0, "De Varona, Donna In the fall of 2007, de Varona completed a documentary as a host, writer, and producer. She wrote Hydro-Aerobics (1984), with Barry Tarshis. Winters, Kelly "De Varona, Donna: 1947: Olympic Swimmer, Sportscaster, Activist Her older sister, Donna de Varona, is a famed Olympic gold medal swimmer, who won two gold medals in the 1964 Olympics. Joanna Kerns is a director and producer on The Good Doctor. Hier knnen Sie Inhalte sammeln, auswhlen und Anmerkungen zu Ihren Dateien hinterlegen. Indeed, the race was so much a cutting-edge event that it was not included in the program at the 1960 Rome Olympics. In 1960, de Varona qualified for the U.S. Olympic swimming team at age 13. It wasn't until the following Olympics, in 1964, when the 400-meter individual . Joanna Kerns made money by Actors niche. de Varona married John Pinto on 10 January 1987; they have two children. She told him, I want to see the world.She reached for a world that was not the common ground for girls her age, becoming the bat girl on her brothers baseball team, although she would have preferred swinging a bat. She also testified on behalf of Title IX legislation in front of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Kerns has also made notable appearances in feature films, including A*P*E, Girl, Interrupted, and the 2007 comedy Knocked Up. During the success of Growing Pains, Kerns began to star in television movies, where she played controversial parts very different from the beloved all-American mom, Maggie Seaver. Four years later at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, after she was well on her way to setting a career total of eighteen world best times and world records, she won the gold medal in the women's 400-meter individual medley. Collect, curate and comment on your files. In 1965 she became the first woman to cover sports on network television for the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) program Wide World of Sports. When she first competed in the Olympics, perhaps 20 percent of the athletes were women. Named a special advisor to President Clinton's Drug Czar, General Barry McCaffrey, de Varona helped with the establishment and funding for both the United States Anti-Doping Agency and the World Anti-Doping Agency, which are entrusted with eradicating the use of illegal substances to enhance performance in sports. . AKA Donna Elizabeth de Varona. In What I Told My Daughter, entertainment executive Nina Tassler has brought together a powerful, diverse group of womenfrom Madeleine Albright to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, from Dr. Susan Love to Whoopi Goldbergto reflect on the best advice and counsel they have given their daughters either by example, throughout their lives, or in character-building, teachable moments between parent and child. By the 1964 Olympics, however, she had become the best known woman swimmer in the world - she had set 18 world records in the interim and won innumerable was voted by both AP and UPI as the top . })(); Ethnicity of Celebs | EthniCelebs.com 2023. Donna De Varona is not only one of the wealthiest swimmers but also one of the most well-known. Months and years lobbying Capitol Hill to get Title IX implemented taught her how best to puzzle out of a maze to achieve results.As a toddler growing up in California, de Varona was ever the explorer, so much so that her father tied bells on her shoes so he could find her as she wandered about. Kerns stated in an interview, "Donna was the golden girl. But now, when they were about to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. Her height is 5 ft 6 in (168 cm). Athletic administrator Joanna Kerns (born February 12, 1953) is an American actress and director best known for her role as Maggie Seaver on the family situation comedy Growing Pains from 1985 to 1992. 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