23-694: Riggin is an Anglicized form of the Irish surname Ó Riagáin ("son of Riagán") derived from the Irish personal name Riagán, which means "little king". Notable people with the surname include: Aileen Riggin (1906–2002), American Olympic swimmer and diver Dennis Riggin (1936–2016), Canadian ice hockey player Pat Riggin (born 1959), Canadian ice hockey player See also [ edit ] Riggins (disambiguation) Riggin o Fife , an upland area in Scotland [REDACTED] Surname list This page lists people with
46-801: A long and varied career in acting, coaching, writing and journalism. She was a swimming celebrity in Hawaii and the United States and an active ambassador of women's swimming well into old age. Born in Newport, Rhode Island , Riggin learned to swim at the age of six, in Manila Bay in the Philippines where her father, a U.S. Navy paymaster, was stationed. Her family settled in Brooklyn Heights in New York and at
69-601: A nursing home in Honolulu, Hawaii of natural causes. Following her death, she was remembered by friends and family as a "pioneer of women's sports". In November 2002, she was posthumously inducted into the Hawaii Sports Hall of Fame . Marjorie Gestring Marjorie Gestring (November 18, 1922 – April 20, 1992) was a competitive springboard diver from the United States . At the age of 13 years and 268 days, she won
92-502: A silver medal in the 3m springboard diving and a bronze medal in the 100m backstroke swimming event . In doing so she became the first female Olympian to win medals in two different sports at the same Olympic Games; in fact she is widely credited as being the only female competitor ever to do so. She was a member of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), winning three national springboard diving titles (from 1923 to 1925) at
115-464: A stepdaughter named Patricia Soule Anderson and two stepsons, Bruce Soule and Wallace Soule. At the time of her death, she also had three grandchildren and two great-grandsons. Aileen Soule moved to Hawaii in 1957 with her second husband, where they lived together for almost twenty-five years; she was widowed for the second time in 1981 and lived alone in Waikiki after her husband's death. In 1967 she
138-546: Is different from Wikidata All set index articles Aileen Riggin Aileen Muriel Riggin (May 2, 1906 – October 17, 2002), also known by her married name Aileen Soule (also Aileen Riggin Soule ), was an American competition swimmer and diver . She was Olympic champion in springboard diving in 1920 and U.S. national springboard diving champion from 1923 to 1925. After retiring from competitions, she enjoyed
161-549: The London Morning Post and others. Her articles were published in national magazines such as Good Housekeeping and Collier's . Her first husband was Dwight D. Young, a navy doctor whom she married in 1924. They had one daughter together named Yvonne May. Young was killed in World War ;II. Following the death of her first husband, she later married Howard Soule, changing her name to Aileen Soule. She gained
184-559: The Metropolitan Opera School of Ballet in New York and her ballet training enabled her to fine-tune her performance in artistic diving. Riggin was the first-ever female Olympic diving champion. She was only 14 years and 120 days old when she won a gold medal in the women's 3 metre springboard diving ('fancy diving') event at the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp , also making her the youngest female Olympic champion (a record that
207-508: The World Masters for her age group (85–89). Furthermore, by the end of 1996 she held eleven national records and five world records in the next age group (90–94). At the end of the 20th century, Riggin was the last surviving champion from the 1920 Olympic Games and she was celebrated as the nation's oldest living female Olympic gold medalist. Aileen (Riggin) Soule died in October 2002 in
230-409: The surname Riggin . If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name (s) to the link. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Riggin&oldid=1149388047 " Category : Surnames Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description
253-416: The 3-meter springboard event. Gestring became the youngest person ever to win an Olympic gold medal at the age of 13 years and 268 days, in what was considered to be an upset, given her competition. Her final dive won her the competition, and her rival Rawls, who had already recognised that the dive had given the gold medal to Gestring instead of her, greeted Gestring as she left the pool. The winning score
SECTION 10
#1732852511162276-703: The AAU Outdoor Championships; she was also twice in the winning team in the 4×220m freestyle relay (1923 and 1924). At the National AAU Indoor Championships, she won one diving title and three freestyle relay titles (in 1922, 1923 and 1925). Riggin made the first underwater swimming film in 1922 and the first slow motion coaching films for Grantland Rice in 1923. She retired from competitions in 1925 and spent her time helping to organize exhibitions and swimming demonstrations overseas. She had minor roles in several Hollywood films: she
299-448: The US national title for 3-meter springboard in both 1938 and 1939. She also won the regional Far Western and Arizona State swimming championships in 1937. Despite the cancellation of the 1940 Summer Olympics due to the advent of World War II , Gestring continued to compete at the national level within the United States. She was US National Women's High Diving Champion for 1939, and retained
322-648: The USA. As one of the surviving members of the United States team at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics, she was chosen to escort the Ceremonial Olympic Handover Flag, known as the Antwerp Flag at the opening ceremony of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and she was invited to address Team USA at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics as a motivational speaker. She continued to swim into old age and at the age of 85 she broke six world records in freestyle and backstroke sprints in
345-663: The advent of World War II . Gestring attempted to return to the Olympics at the 1948 Games , but failed to qualify for the US team. She has been inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame and the Stanford Athletic Hall of Fame . Gestring won her first major title at the Amateur Athletic Union meeting at Chicago in 1936. In the tryouts for the 1936 Summer Olympics for the United States team, she placed second behind Katherine Rawls in qualifying in
368-589: The age of eleven she became a charter member of the celebrated Women's Swimming Association (WSA) of New York, founded by Charlotte Epstein in 1917. Her first WSA swimming coach was Louis de B. Handley of the New York Athletic Club , double gold medalist at St. Louis in 1904 . Riggin first took up diving in 1919 at the age of thirteen; she practiced in a tide pool on Long Island because there were no training facilities provided in those days for female divers. She had spent some time studying ballet at
391-552: The gold medal in 3-meter springboard diving at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin , making her at the time the youngest person ever to win an Olympic gold medal. She remains the second-youngest Olympic gold medalist, as of 2024. A multi-time national diving champion in the United States, she was given a second Olympic gold medal by the United States Olympic Committee after the 1940 Summer Olympics were called off due to
414-455: The gold medal to Gestring. She attempted to make the US team once more in the 1948 Summer Olympics , but did not qualify, finishing in fourth place in the team trials. In 1943, at the age of 19, Gestring married Edward Harrison Carter, then a student at UCLA . Gestring died on April 20, 1992, after an accident in her home in Hillsborough, California . She was 69. She was inducted into
437-478: The title in 1940. She also retained the title for the 3-meter springboard that same year. A fellow diver of the same era, Margaret Ambrosia , stated that she would have expected Gestring to win the gold medal once more had the 1940 Olympic Games been held as planned. The United States Olympic Committee evidently agreed when they handed out gold, silver and bronze medals in lieu of the Games taking place, giving as they did
460-403: Was 89.27, while Rawls' score was 88.35. Gestring was part of an all-American top three in the final round, with Rawls winning silver and Dorothy Poynton-Hill winning bronze. Rawls and Gestring were described as being in a "duel" for the gold medal, in front of 15,000 spectators. Following her Olympic victory, Gestring competed in national championships in the run-up to the next Games. She won
483-518: Was a dancer in the 1933 musical Roman Scandals and she skated in the first Sonja Henie film One in a Million in 1936. She starred in Billy Rose 's first Aquacade at the 1937 Cleveland Exposition , which she also helped to organize. She wrote books about her experiences in swimming and she became a successful sports journalist, writing newspaper columns for the New York Daily Post ,
SECTION 20
#1732852511162506-748: Was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale, Florida . As a result of her fundraising and motivational presentations, she was selected to serve as Grande Dame of the Swimming Hall of Fame in 1988. She was a founder member of the Hawaii Senior Games Association, supporters of the Senior Olympics , and remained a board member into old age. Soule was one of the most sought after swimming celebrities in Hawaii and
529-485: Was surpassed in 1936 by 13-year-old American diver Marjorie Gestring ). Not only was she the youngest gold medalist at the 1920 Olympics, she was also the shortest, at only 4 feet 8 inches (1.42 m) and weighing just 65 pounds (29 kg); she went down in history as America's smallest Olympic champion. Still only eighteen, Riggin competed at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris in both diving and swimming, winning
#161838