![]() Chandler in 1976 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Full name | Jennifer Kay Bellamy Chandler | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Langdale, Alabama, U.S. | June 30, 1959|||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 115 lb (52 kg) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | Diving | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Club | Ron O'Brien Diving School, Columbus | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Coached by | Ron O'Brien | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Jennifer Kay Bellamy Chandler (born June 13, 1959) is a retired American diver who attended the University of Arizona, and won a gold medal in diving in the 1976 Montreal Olympics. [1]
Chandler was born on June 30, 1959 in Langdale, Alabama,and started diving when she was nine. She went to the junior Olympics at the age of 12, and in 1975 won the AAU national indoor 1-meter springboard event. In 1976 she captured the national indoor 3-meter springboard championship. [2]
She won a gold medal in the women's 3-metre springboard event at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. [2]
In international competition, she won a gold at the 1975 Pan American Games and a bronze medal at the 1978 World Aquatics Championships. She was a seven-time national diving champion. [1]
Chandler retired from diving when she was 21 due to back injuries. [2]
She earned a BFA in drawing and painting from The University of Arizona. She was married to John W. Stevenson, the publisher and editor of The Randolph Leader in Roanoke, Alabama, until his death in 2019. [1] [3] Chandler is also a painter with work on display through the Art of the Olympians organization.
Chandler has done work as an expert commentator for several national television networks. For 10 years, she worked for the Lakeshore Foundation, a world-class rehabilitation and athletic training facility located in Birmingham, Alabama, as their development and special events coordinator. [4] In 2021, Chandler became the director of development for the Vulcan Park and Museum in Birmingham. Three years later, she became director of community outreach for the museum. [5]
She was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame (ASHOF) in 1985, [6] and was elected to the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1987. [7] She became the educational outreach director for the American Swimming Hall of Fame (ASHOF) in 2003. [8]
Alexandre Despatie is a Canadian diver and broadcaster from Laval, Quebec. He was the world champion at the 1 and 3 m springboards from 2005 to 2007 and is the first, and so far only, diver to have been world champion in all three individual categories. He is also a 37-time Canadian senior diving champion and nine-time junior champion, and the most decorated male diver in Canadian history, winning two Olympic silver medals and reaching eight podiums at the world championships, including three gold medals. He was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Gao Min is a Chinese diver who won gold medals in the springboard event of the 1988 and 1992 Olympic Games.
Ulrika Margareta Knape-Lindberg is a retired Swedish diver. She competed in the 10 m platform and 3 m springboard at the 1972 and 1976 Olympics and won one gold and two silver medals. In 1972–1974 she was named the World Platform Diver of the Year. Domestically she won 38 Swedish titles.
Victoria Manalo Draves was a Filipino American competitive diver who won gold medals in both platform and springboard diving at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. Draves became the first woman to be awarded gold medals for both the ten-meter platform and the three-meter springboard. Additionally, Draves became the first American woman to win two gold medals in diving, and the first Asian American to win Olympic gold medals. She was born in San Francisco.
Klaus Dibiasi is a former sports diver from Italy, who competed in four consecutive Summer Olympics for his country, starting in 1964. He dominated the platform event from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s, winning three Olympic gold medals.
John "Jonty" Alexander Skinner is a former Hall of Fame South African competition swimmer and world record-holder, who for over forty years served as an American club and college swimming coach primarily at his alma mater, the University of Alabama before retiring as a coach in 2020. He coached the US national team in the mid-1990s, remaining as a Director of Team Performance through 2008.
Marjorie Gestring was a competitive springboard diver from the United States. At the age of 13 years and 268 days, she won 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 2025. 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 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.
Sir Peter Heatly, was a Scottish diver and Chairman of the Commonwealth Games Federation. He competed in the 3 m springboard and 10 m platform at the 1948 and 1952 Olympics, at the 1950, 1954 and 1958 British Empire Games, and at the 1954 European Championships. He won five British Empire Games medals and one European medal, while his best Olympic result was fifth place in 1948. Heatly was knighted in 1990, before being inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame in 2002, the Scottish Swimming Hall of Fame in 2010 and the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 2016.
Jane Fauntz, 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) and 1932. She was the bronze medalist for springboard diving at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Cynthia Ann Potter is an American former Olympic diver and diving color commentator. She was a member of three Olympic diving teams, winning a bronze medal in the 3 m springboard in 1976.
Robert David "Bob" Webster is a retired American diver who won the 10 m platform event at every competition he entered between 1960 and 1964, including the 1960 and 1964 Olympics and 1963 Pan American Games. He later became a diving coach at the University of Minnesota, Princeton University, and the University of Alabama. He was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1970 and the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor in 1989.
Susanne Gossick is a retired American diver. Competing in the 3 m springboard she won gold medals at the 1967 Pan American Games and 1968 Olympics and placed fourth at the 1964 Olympics.
Ingrid Gulbin is a diver from East Germany, a multiple Olympic champion who won Olympic gold medals in both springboard and platform.
Kelly Anne McCormick is a retired Hall of Fame female diver from the United States. She dove for Ohio State University and twice competed for her native country at the Summer Olympics, winning a silver (1984) and a bronze medal (1988) in the Women's 3m Springboard event.
Megan Neyer is an American former competition springboard and platform diver. Neyer was a member of the ill-fated 1980 U.S. Olympic team, the 1982 world champion springboard diver, a fifteen-time U.S. national diving champion, and an eight-time NCAA champion.
Irina Vladimirovna Kalinina is a former Soviet diver and olympic champion. She competed at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, where she won the gold medal in Women's 3 metre springboard.
Janet Ely is a former American female diver for the University of Michigan and Southern Methodist University and was a diving competitor in the 1972 Munich and 1976 Montreal Olympics. Under coach Dick Kimball, she trained in swimming and diving at the YMCA Tennis Club, then attended and swam for the University of Michigan and Southern Methodist University.
Ronald Shay O'Brien was a Hall of Fame American diving coach and author who dove for Ohio State University. He was the head diving coach at Ohio State from 1963-78, later coaching the Mission Viejo Nadadores from 1978-85, the Mission Bay Divers of Boca Raton from 1985-90, and the City of Fort Lauderdale Diving Team from 1990-96. He coached diving for the U.S. Olympic team for eight successive Olympics from 1968-96 and coached Olympic champion Greg Louganis and future Ohio State Diving Coach Vince Panzano. The seven Olympic medalists he coached won five gold, three silver, and four bronze medals.
Wendy Lian Williams is a retired American diver. She won a bronze medal in the 10 metres platform event at the 1988 Summer Olympics. Additional medals that Williams won include a gold at the 1989 FINA Diving World Cup and a bronze at the 1991 World Aquatics Championships. After ending her diving career in 1992, she worked for NBC as a sports commentator.
Deborah Wilson is an American diver. Wilson originally competed in springboard diving before moving on to platform diving. As a platform diver, she was first at the 1973 Amateur Athletic Union national diving championships. She participated in the 1973 World Aquatics Championships and 1975 World Aquatics Championships but did not medal in either championship. In international competitions, Wilson won a bronze medal in the women's 10 metre platform event at the 1976 Summer Olympics.