Eleanor Coleman (March 10, 1905 – October 2, 1978) was an American

swimmer Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...

Early life

Coleman was born in Chicago and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the daughter of Charles Lemuel Coleman and Nellie May Emerson Coleman. Both of her parents were born in Illinois; her father was a traveling salesman.

Career

Coleman broke the world record in 1922 in the 100 yd breaststroke and competed in the

women's 200 metre breaststroke A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

event at the

1924 Summer Olympics The 1924 Summer Olympics (french: Jeux olympiques d'été de 1924), officially the Games of the VIII Olympiad (french: Jeux de la VIIIe olympiade) and also known as Paris 1924, were an international multi-sport event held in Paris, France. The op ...

. For three years she held a world's record in the women's breaststroke. Later in life, she gave swimming demonstrations, and was a Red Cross examiner for lifesaving. Beyond the pool, she was a sports writer and editor at the '' Wisconsin News''. She also had a newspaper column and hosted a weekly radio show, both on women's health and fitness. She was appointed promotional chair for the American Red Cross in Brown County in 1939.

Personal life and legacy

In 1927, she married Marquette University and

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. It ...

football player, and later Congressman, LaVern Dilweg. The Dilwegs had four children. Her husband died in 1968, and she died in 1978, aged 73 years, in

Green Bay, Wisconsin Green Bay is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The county seat of Brown County, it is at the head of Green Bay (known locally as "the bay of Green Bay"), a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It is above sea lev ...

. Her son Gary Dilweg served in the Wisconsin state legislature. Her grandson Anthony Dilweg played football at

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

, and later with the Green Bay Packers.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Coleman, Eleanor 1905 births 1978 deaths American female swimmers Olympic swimmers for the United States Swimmers at the 1924 Summer Olympics Swimmers from Chicago 20th-century American women