Jane Fauntz (December 19, 1910 – May 30, 1989), also known by her married name Jane Manske, was a national champion swimmer and diver, and a member of the United States Olympic teams in 1928 (

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

) and 1932 (

springboard diving A springboard or diving board is used for diving and is a board that is itself a spring, i.e. a linear flex-spring, of the cantilever type. Springboards are commonly fixed by a hinge at one end (so they can be flipped up when not in use), and ...

). She was the bronze medalist for

springboard A springboard or diving board is used for diving and is a board that is itself a spring, i.e. a linear flex-spring, of the cantilever type. Springboards are commonly fixed by a hinge at one end (so they can be flipped up when not in use), and ...

diving at the 1932 Summer Olympics At the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, four diving events were organized, two for men, and two for women. The competitions were held from Monday, 8 August 1932 to Saturday, 13 August 1932. Medal summary The events are labelled as 3 metre ...

in Los Angeles. Fauntz was born in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
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, and raised in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, where she attended Hyde Park High School. Unable to compete in high school swimming competitions because of a ban on female interscholastic athletics in Illinois, Fauntz competed as a teenager first for Hirsch Center and then for the Illinois Women's Athletic Club swimming and diving teams. In March 1928 she set new world records for the 100-yard breaststroke (1:20.3) and 100-meter breaststroke (1:29.3) at a dual meet against a Canadian team. About six months before that she was hit by a car and severely injured the

radial nerve The radial nerve is a nerve in the human body that supplies the posterior portion of the upper limb. It innervates the medial and lateral heads of the triceps brachii muscle of the arm, as well as all 12 muscles in the posterior osteofascial comp ...

in her right arm. At the age of 17 at the

1928 Summer Olympics The 1928 Summer Olympics ( nl, Olympische Zomerspelen 1928), officially known as the Games of the IX Olympiad ( nl, Spelen van de IXe Olympiade) and commonly known as Amsterdam 1928, was an international multi-sport event that was celebrated from ...

in Amsterdam, Fauntz finished in fifth place in the women's 200-meter

breaststroke Breaststroke is a swimming style in which the swimmer is on their chest and the torso does not rotate. It is the most popular recreational style due to the swimmer's head being out of the water a large portion of the time, and that it can be s ...

. Her specialty, however, was diving. Describing Fauntz during the Olympic diving competition, author

Paul Gallico Paul William Gallico (July 26, 1897 – July 15, 1976) was an American novelist and short story and sports writer.Ivins, Molly,, ''The New York Times'', July 17, 1976. Retrieved Oct. 25, 2020. Many of his works were adapted for motion pictu ...

wrote in the ''

New York Daily News The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...

'':

"..Her marvelous body flowed through the dives with the smoothness of running quicksilver."

That "marvelous body" became a source of mild controversy at the Los Angeles games, when a Hungarian diving judge, Dr. Leo Donath, ordered the diving competition halted until the American divers changed their suits; he had objected to the near-backless cut of the team-supplied swimsuit. At the

Amateur Athletic Union The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It has ...

(AAU) swimming indoor national championships in Chicago in 1929, Fauntz won two national titles within the space of one half-hour, winning the one-meter springboard and 100-meter breaststroke titles. Fauntz captured the three-meter springboard bronze medal at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, finishing 5 points behind gold medalist

Georgia Coleman Georgia V. Coleman (January 23, 1912 – September 14, 1940) was an American diver. She competed in the 3 m springboard and 10 m platform at the 1928 and 1932 Olympics and won one gold, one bronze and two silver medals. Domestically she col ...

and a single point behind silver medalist

Katherine Rawls Katherine Louise Rawls (June 14, 1917 – April 8, 1982), also known by her married names Katherine Thompson and Katherine Green, was an American competition swimmer and diver. She was the United States national champion in multiple events duri ...

, helping the United States team to a sweep of the event. Fauntz led the competition after the compulsory dives, but slipped to third after mistiming the entry on her next-to-last optional dive. (Fauntz later said this dive was "the worst one I'd ever done. There went my world; I didn't even want to come up from the pool.") Fauntz parlayed her Olympic success to a career in marketing, modeling, and professional aquatic exhibitions. She became one of the first female athletes to appear on the

Wheaties Wheaties is an American brand of breakfast cereal that is made by General Mills. It is well known for featuring prominent athletes on its packages and has become a cultural icon in the United States. Originally introduced as Washburn's Gold Meda ...

cereal box; she was also one of many celebrities of the time recruited to endorse cigarettes (in her case,

Camels A camel (from: la, camelus and grc-gre, κάμηλος (''kamēlos'') from Hebrew or Phoenician: גָמָל ''gāmāl''.) is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. C ...

) and beer (

Falstaff Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare and is eulogised in a fourth. His significance as a fully developed character is primarily formed in the plays '' Henry IV, Part 1'' and '' Part 2'', w ...

). Jane also appeared as

cover girl A cover girl is a woman whose photograph features on the front cover of a magazine. She may be a model, celebrity or entertainer. The term would generally not be used to describe a casual, once-off appearance by a person on the cover of a magaz ...

for ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...

'' and ''

Ladies Home Journal ''Ladies' Home Journal'' was an American magazine last published by the Meredith Corporation. It was first published on February 16, 1883, and eventually became one of the leading women's magazines of the 20th century in the United States. In 18 ...

''. She worked as a model for

Saks Fifth Avenue Saks Fifth Avenue (originally Saks & Company; Colloquialism, colloquially Saks) is an American Luxury goods, luxury department store chain headquartered in New York City and founded by Andrew Saks. The original store opened in the F Street and ...

. As a professional diver, Fauntz appeared in exhibitions at the Chicago World's Fair in 1933, where she met future husband Edgar "Eggs" Manske, an All-American football star at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

; they married in 1936. An artist by training (B.A., art education,

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

) and vocation, Fauntz was a painter and sculptor. While her husband was serving in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, she made ceramic figurines for

California Faience California Faience was a pottery studio in Berkeley, California in existence from 1915 to 1959. The pottery produced tiles, decorative vases, bowls, jars and trivets. The pottery was founded by and who also taught at the California School of Art ...

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

, and later sold her figurines under the trade name "Jane Fauntz Original". She taught high school art classes for 20 years at

Las Lomas High School Las Lomas High School (LLHS) is a public high school in Walnut Creek, California, United States. It was founded in 1951 by the Acalanes Union High School District, and opened its doors in the fall of 1952 to its first graduating class. Las Loma ...

Walnut Creek, California Walnut Creek is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, about east of the city of Oakland. With a total population of 70,127 per the 2020 census, Walnut Creek ser ...

, where she also coached boys' diving. Her bronze bust of former

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

football coach Lynn "Pappy" Waldorf is on display at the university's Sports Hall of Fame. Fauntz died of

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...

on May 30, 1989. In 1991 she was posthumously inducted into the

International Swimming Hall of Fame The International Swimming Hall of Fame and Museum (ISHOF) is a history museum and hall of fame, located at One Hall of Fame Drive, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States, operated by private interests and serving as the central point for the stu ...

See also

References

Further reading