delawareans in the olympics
1908 LONDON
K.K.V. Casey - Casey won the first ever Delaware medal at the Olympics when he took the silver in the 1000-yard rifle shoot. Casey was commanding officer of Company C in the First Delaware Infantry.
George S. Dole - Dole, a Yale man, was the son of famed Wilmington minister George Henry Dole who wrestled at 133 pounds in London. Dole ripped through three straight Englishmen to reach the finals, winning through heavy home-town boos. An offensive wrestler, Dole beat Slim of England to win the gold and raise the American flag.
John W. Hessian - Hessian was a teammate of Casey’s on the Olympic Rifle team, although he did not win a medal. Three of the 86-man United States team were from Delaware.
1912 AMSTERDAM
Louis Stoll - Originally from Baltimore and the Arundel Boat Club the 24-year old Stoll had been in Wilmington about a year when he made the United States 4-man crew for the 1912 Olympics.
1924 PARIS
Sid Jelinek - A Wilmington native who went to Philadelphia and crewed for the University of Pennsylvania, Jelinek won a bronze medal in the Men’s Coxed Fours on the Seine River, rowing for the Bachelor’s Barge Club.
Marion Zinderstein Jessup - Jessup won the silver medal in the only mixed doubles tennis ever contested in the Olympics, teaming with Vincent Richards, one of the top players of the 1920s. Originally a four-time national doubles champion from Massachusetts, Jessup was a Delaware state champion in badminton as well as tennis.
John B. Grier - Grier, a resident of Rockland and long-time captain in the Delaware National Guard, competed in the 800-meter rifle shoot in 1924. He would have easily qualified for the 1928 team as well but he was declared a professional and turned his talents to trapshooting. In 1935 he won the singles, doubles and all-around titles in Delaware and in 1936 he won the national pro title by breaking 199 of 200 targets, missing only #183. Grier won the pro singles twice, the national doubles once and the Grand American Handicap. He was an All-American shooter in 1936-37-38.
1952 HELSINKI
Frank Shakespeare - A fine all-around athlete out of Dover High School, Shakespeare concentrated on rowing at the Naval Academy after being cut from the basketball team, manning the bow oar on one of the all-time great 8-man crews. Navy won two straight Intercollegiate Rowing Association championships and 20 consecutive meets, winning the right to represent America in the Olympics. In Helsinki the Midshipmen jumped to the lead at the start and edged the Soviet crew by a length and a half to win the gold medal.
1964 TOKYO
Stan Cole - The Dover native was a water polo star at Wilson High School in Long Beach, California and at UCLA where the Bruins went 45-0 in his three All-American years on the varsity. Cole represented the United States in Tokyo, Mexico City and Munich where the water polo team won a bronze medal. He would go on to be named on the Pac-12 Conference All-Century team.
Vic Zwolak - Zwolak capped a successful collegiate racing career by finishing second in the Olympic Trials in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, becoming the first track and field Olympian from Delaware. In Tokyo Zwolak narrowly missed qualifying for the finals, finishing 4th in his preliminary heat. Zwolak ran one more competitive race before retiring, finishing second a week later in a special British Commonwealth meet in Osaka, Japan. Zwolak never stopped running and later held more than 20 state-resident age class records from aged 45 to 79.
1968 MEXICO CITY
Gardner Cox - Frank Gardner Cox, Jr. was born in Wilmington in 1920 and was educated at Philips Andover Academy and Princeton University where his exploits earned him a spot in the first class of the Intercollegiate Sailing Hall of Fame. He won several national sailing titles for the Mantoloking Yacht Club in New Jersey and represented the United States in Mexico City in the Mixed 5.5 metres class, finishing eighth in the final time the big boats competed in the Games. The U.S. Sailing Association awards the F. Gardner Cox Sportsmanship Trophy for the team that displays the highest tradition in fairness during its national regatta.
Dave Johnson - Although he didn’t start swimming until his sophomore year at Archmere Academy, Johnson was a three-time All-American swimmer at Yale where he set the American record in the 400-meter individual medley. Johnson made the Olympic team as an alternate despite breaking his arm two months before the trials. In Mexico City Johnson swam preliminary heats in the 800-meter freestyle relay, qualifying the United States for its place in the finals. Twelve years later Dr. Dave Johnson returned to the Olympics - this time as a volunteer orthopedic surgeon at the Lake Placid Games.
Donnan Sharp Plumb - The Greenville-bred Plumb, 30, represented the United States as a member of the fledgling equestrian team in dressage. Plumb and her steed, the 14-year old Attache, competed in both the individual and team events, both of which were dominated by the Europeans.
Art Redden - Redden, a track and football star at Howard High and Arkansas A & M, didn’t begin boxing until he was a 25-year old Marine in 1963. Within six months the 5’10”, 175-pound light heavyweight qualified for the 1964 Olympic team as an alternate. Four years later Redden was a four-time Marine and All-Service champion and the leading light-heavyweight amateur in the country. He won the gold medal at the Pan-Am Games and was undefeated in the qualifying bouts for the 1968 Olympic team. In Mexico City, however, Redden lost his opening fight in a free-swinging battle with Bulgarian Georgi Stankov. Redden retired after the Olympics with a career record of 65-6, including 30 knockouts.
1972 MUNICH
Jenny Bartz - When Jenny Bartz was in the pool growing up in Delaware those who saw her thought she was destined for the Olympics. They were right but when she made the American team as a 17-year old in 1972 she was representing the Santa Clara Swim Club in California. Bartz narrowly missed the medals podium twice with 4th place finishes in the 200- and 400-metre Individual Medleys.s
Chris Dunn - Dunn, a Colgate senior from Newark High, peaked perfectly in the 1972 Olympic Trials, establishing a personal best of 7’3” to finish third in the high jump and become an Olympian. At Munich he could clear no better than 6’11 1/2”, and did not qualify for the finals.
1976 MONTREAL
Steve Gregg - Gregg qualified for the Montreal games by finishing third in the 200-meter butterfly at the Olympic Trials and established himself as a gold medal favorite when he shattered the Olympic record in a qualifying heat. In the Olympic finals Gregg was in fifth place for more than 100 meters before racing down the leaders in the final 50 meters. He bettered the world record in 1:59.54 but was touched out for the gold medal by teammate Mike Bruner who won the race in 1:59.23.
1980 LAKE PLACID
Frank Masley - Just three years after getting on a sled for the first time Masley was in the Olympics. He finished 18th in the doubles with partner Ray Bateman.
1984 SARAJEVO
Frank Masley - Masley was now America’s finest luger and captain of the luge team. A two-time Olympian, he was also selected to lead the American team into Olympic Stadium holding the American flag. He competed in both singles and doubles, finishing 14th and 13th respectively.
Tom Barnes - Barnes, a Caesar Rodney graduate, helped the United States four-man bobsled Number One team to a fifth place finish, its best since 1956. Barnes, 24, took up the sport while stationed in Plattsburgh, New York in the Air Force.
1984 LOS ANGELES
Aldis Berzins - Berzins, of Latvian heritage, was born in Wilmington and went through six grades at Forwood Elementary School before his family moved to Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Berzins played four years of volleyball at Ohio State University and made his first United States team as a 20-year old in 1977. In Los Angeles the Delaware native was an outside hitter for the gold medal winning United States volleyball team.
1988 CALGARY
Frank Masley - Masley now had competition as America’s best luger but he made his third Olympics and his 12th place finish was the highest ever by an American slider.
1988 SEOUL
Terri Dendy - Dendy, a 23-year old graduate of Concord High School, qualified as one of eight women on the United States 4 x 400-meter relay team. In Seoul fewer countries than expected entered the event and there was only one heat before the finals. Dendy was not selected to run in either the semifinal qualifier or the final.
Vicki Huber - Coming out of Concord High School in 1985 as the holder of Delaware scholastic records in the 800 and 1500-meters Huber was expected to be a good collegiate runner. But in three years at Villanova she blossomed into much more than that. By the 1988 Olympics, in which she qualified in the 3,000-meters, she was the holder of five NCAA records. In Seoul she led the 3,000- meter final with less than two laps to go as she battled the world’s best runners in front of 100,000 screaming fans. Huber faded to sixth place but her time of 8:37.25 was nine seconds better than her personal best and the sixth fastest women’s 3,000-meter in United States history.
1996 ATLANTA
Jason Gleasman - Jason Gleasman was born in Delaware but grew up in Upstate New York where he began wrestling at the age of five. He was an outstanding wrestler at Syracuse University and was the youngest member of the United States Greco-Roman team in Atlanta. The 21-year old won his first match against Ba Yanchuan of China but lost the next two to finish 12th in the 220-pound division.
Dionna Harris - Dionna Harris got her first taste of the softball wars on the diamonds of the Stanton-Newport Little League when she was nine years old. She was a four-time All-Conference performer at Delcastle High School and was twice an All-American infielder at Del-Tech Community College. After transferring to Temple University Harris became the Atlantic 10 conference player of the year. Following graduation she played on national and international teams for the Raybestos Brakettes of Stratford, Connecticut and in 1996 at the age of 28 Harris was the starting rightfielder for the United States in the first-ever appearance of women’s softball in the Olympics. The Americans downed China in the finals to complete an 8-1 tournament and claim the gold medal.
2000 SYDNEY
Mike Neill - Mike Neill experienced his first baseball stardom in the Seaford Nanticoke Little League where he was on teams that won five state championships and went to the Senior League World Series three times. He picked up another state championship holding down first base for the Seaford Blue Jays in 1986. Another title came in the Big East with Villanova where he was Big East Player of the Year. Drafted into the Oakland A’s system Neill won a pair of minor league batting crowns but only had one brief stay in the big leagues. In Sydney, Neill got the USA team rolling with a first inning home run against Cuba in the gold medal game. He also helped preserve the 4-0 win with a sliding catch in the 9th inning.
2004 ATHENS
Barb Lindquist - Barb Lindquist was born in Wilmington in 1969 but grew up in
Casper, Wyoming. Whe was a national-level swimmer who failed to make the Olympic team in 1988, her only try. She tried her first triathlon in 1993 and a decade later she was the world’s number one ranked women’s triathlete. At Athens she placed ninth in the second time the triathlon was contested in the Olympics.
2008 BEJING
Katelyn Falgowski - Wilmington-born Katelyn Falgowski was the youngest player named to the USA U-20 field hockey team when she made the elite squad at the age of 14. She made the Women’s National Team while at St. Mark’s High School and then began piling up awards at the University of North Carolina. She was the youngest college player to make the Olympic Team roster in Bejing, where the Americans placed eighth.
Carrie Lingo - From her base in Sussex County, Carrie Lingo became one of thestalwarts of American field hockey. Beginning in 2002, after graduating from the University of North Carolina where she won a national championship, Lingo played in 190 international matches, including the Bejing Olympics, before retiring in 2012 as captain of the USA Women’s National Field Hockey Team.
2012 LONDON
Katelyn Falgowski - Despite undergoing knee surgery for a torn anterior cruciate ligament in 2011, Falgowski was named a World All Star that year by the International Hockey Federation. She followed that up by making her second Olympic field hockey team. The Americans lost five of their six matches to finish 12th as Falgowski recorded her first shot on goal and assist in Olympic play.
Shannon Taylor - Shannon Taylor took the field hockey foundation she forged in Delaware until her sophomore year at Seaford High School to Virginia and then to Syracuse University. She took a break from coaching duties at the University of Massachusetts to compete with the U.S. National team in 2013 and then the London Olympics.
The following Olympians have trained at the Skating Club of Wilmington:
1976 Susie Kelly/Andy Stroukoff 17th in dance
1976 Alice Cook/Bill Fauver 11th in pairs
1980 Kitty Carruthers/Peter Carruthers 5th in pairs
1984 Kitty Carruthers/Peter Carruthers Silver Medal in pairs
1984 Lea Ann Miller/Bill Fauver 10th in pairs
1984 Carol Fox/Richard Dalley 5th in dance
1984 Lisa Spitz/Scott Gregory 10th in dance
1988 Kim Seybold/Wayne Seybold 10th in pairs
1988 Suzy Semanick/Scott Gregory 6th in dance
1988 Gillion Wachsman/Todd Waggoner 5th in pairs
1992 Calla Urbanski/Rocky Marval 10th in pairs
1994 Karen Courtland/Todd Reynolds 10th in pairs
2014 Ashley Wagner 7th in Ladies Figure Skating
The following Olympians have trained at the University of Delaware Skating Club:
1998 Tara Lipinski Gold Medal in Ladies Figure Skating
2006 Kimmie Meissner 6th in Ladies Figure Skating
2014 Felicia Zhang/Nathan Bartholmay 12th in pairs