Thanks for the obit, but might I politely suggest reading glasses ...
She died March 31st ...
http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/sports/114438392544100.xml&coll=7
... and won a *bronze* medal ...
The obit ...
Olympic Swimmer, Coach, Olive Mucha Dies
The Longtime Portlander Won a Bronze at Berlin, And Mentored Future
Olympians at the MAC
FROM: The Oregonian ~
By Abby Haight
Water was Olive McKean Mucha's medium.
She swam in Seattle's Green Lake as a child in the 1920s, was
recruited by the nation's leading swim coach as a teenager and won a
bronze medal at the 1936 Summer Olympic Games -- the "Jesse Owens'
Games" in Hitler's Berlin.
Later, Mucha was a swimming teacher, coach of champions and passionate
organizer for national and international swimming events.
Until recently, Mucha played water volleyball weekly at the Multnomah
Athletic Club.
Mucha died March 31 after a brief illness. She was 90. Appropriately,
she spent her last days watching the rushing current of her beloved
Sandy River outside the Troutdale home she and her husband, Chuck,
built in 1969.
"She was a vital, alive person," said her daughter, Judy Jimenez. "She
loved gardening. She drove her own car. Her driver's license was
renewed until 2011 and they said she didn't even need glasses."
Olive McKean was born Aug. 10, 1915, in Chehalis, Wash., the daughter
of a seamstress and a logger. The family moved to Seattle, where Olive
began swimming at Green Lake. Ray Daughters, the illustrious coach of
the Washington Athletic Club, saw the young Olive in a race and
offered her a scholarship to the prestigious club. The McKean family
could not have afforded the membership costs.
The WAC relay team -- Olive, Doris Buckley, Mary Lou Petty and Betty
Lea, won the national championship in 1935-1937. The team and coaches
would drive across the country to the national meets, stopping at
pools along the way to swim "exhibitions" that often were rewarded
with free dinners, Jimenez said.
Mucha met her future husband at the Washington Athletic Club. Chuck
Mucha was a football player at the University of Washington, one of
the renowned Ironmen. They married in 1936.
That same year, Mucha was sixth in the 100-meter freestyle and third
in the 100 freestyle relay at the Berlin Games.
Mucha retired from competition soon after -- the family, with
daughters Judy and Jean, moved to Portland in 1939. But she remained
deeply involved in swimming, teaching lessons and then coaching at the
Multnomah Athletic Club from 1960 to 1980. Among the athletes she
coached were Olympians Carolyn Wood, Don Schollander and Cathy
Jamison.
Wood, who won a relay gold medal in the 1960 Olympics, worked with
Mucha just before retiring from competition.
"She was very personal, consistent, kind and inclusive," Wood said.
Although the young swimmers knew Mucha was an Olympic medalist, she
rarely spoke about the experience. "She was pretty focused on where
you were and how she could bring that along.
"She was just a really kind, gentle person."
Mucha served as president of the Oregon Amateur Athletic Union and
directed high school and Special Olympics swim meets. Internationally,
she was a chaperone for the 1968 U.S. Olympic women's swim team in
Mexico City and managed the U.S. Swim Team at the 1972 Olympic Games
in Munich.
She collected a raft of honors, including Tom McCall's Governors'
Award in 1971, The Phillips 66 Award in 1979 and the Girl Scouts
Outstanding Women's Award in 1995. She attended her induction into the
Pacific Northwest Swimming Hall of Fame in 2005.
Survivors include her daughters, Judith Ann Jimenez, of Orchard Park,
N.Y., and Jean Rocchio of San Francisco; three grandchildren and two
great-grandchildren. Chuck Mucha preceded her in death on Dec. 22,
1997.
Remembrances to the Shriner's Hospital for Children, 3101 S.W. Sam
Jackson Park Road, Portland, OR, 97239.