Aileen Riggin, 1920 and 1924, Diving
An Olympian’s Oral History AILEEN RIGGIN 1920 Olympic Games – Antwerp - Springboard Diving - Gold Medal 1924 Olympic Games – Paris - Springboard Diving - Silver Medal - 100-meter Backstroke - Bronze Medal Interviewed by: Dr. Margaret Costa Edited by: Carmen E. Rivera Published by the LA84 Foundation 2141 West Adams Boulevard Los Angeles, California 90018 www.la84.org ©1999 LA84 Foundation All Rights Reserved 1 AILEEN RIGGIN Today is Friday, November 11th, 1994, in Honolulu, Hawaii. This is Dr. Margaret Costa interviewing Aileen Riggin, gold medalist, springboard diving, 1920. Silver medal, springboard diving, 1924. Bronze medal, 100-meter backstroke, 1924. Q: Tell me about your childhood. A: It’s diffi cult to pinpoint my childhood. Perhaps I should start when I was 11 because that’s when I started swimming competition and we were living in New York City. I was of very delicate health. I went through the Spanish infl uenza epidemic that occurred during 1917 and ‘18. This was the greatest scourge that ever hit the world, but very few people know about it now. It killed more people than died in World War II, World War I and II, I think. My doctor suggested swimming, but this wasn’t easy living in New York, except in the summer time. So we found a small pool in a little hotel, it was in the Brooklyn Heights, where we were living at that time. It was just by chance that a club was forming. It was really a club of businesswomen who wanted a place to exercise and swim after they were fi nished with their work in the daytime.
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