Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Born | Toronto, Ontario, Canada | 14 August 1944||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 4 ft 11 in (1.50 m) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 98 lb (44 kg) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | Diving | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Event | Springboard diving | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Coached by | Don Webb | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Judy Stewart (born 14 August 1944) is a Canadian diver. She competed in two events at the 1964 Summer Olympics. [1] She was coached by champion diver Don Webb and won medals in the 1963 Pan American Games and the 1965 British Swimming Championships. Stewart was a former gymnast and married golfer Phil Brownlee in January 1966 and later retired from competitive diving that year.
During her career, she was described in various newspapers as being one of the best in Canada and particular by former Olympic diver Irene MacDonald, who described her as the best female Canadian competitor that she had witnessed during her own diving career.
Born in Toronto, [2] Stewart was coached by Don Webb from 1961, after initially entering a diving contest "as a joke", to which she was easily victorious and encouraged Webb to offer her some advice. [3] Stewart said during an interview that she owed everything to Webb, "If it weren't for him, I wouldn't be where I am", describing him as a "tough coach". Webb began coaching Stewart when she was 15 and part of the Police Youth Club, at a time when she also practiced gymnastics. They met when Webb was asked to be a judge in a gymnastics competition at the Scarboro club and he later demonstrated the trampoline to gymnasts including Stewart. When they first met, Webb commented that he thought "she'd do better in diving than gymnastics", commenting that when she first tried it, she was "awful at first", belly flopping at nearly every attempt and requiring Webb's assistance several times to help her out of the water. She had never dived before in her life, but Webb was a champion diver who won the world's high-diving championship in 1963. In Webb's opinion, he believed her best dive was the 1½ somersault pike. [4]
Stewart would practice diving three night each week, including on Sunday and would be in bed no later than 10pm every night. [4] Prior to a big event, she would train every day of the week for at least three hours at a time, traveling 10 miles (16 km) to the Leaside Aquatic Club from her home in the Toronto suburb of West Hill. [5] Former Olympic diver Irene MacDonald announced her retirement in 1961, citing among her reasons that she thought it was time to allow other Canadian girls the opportunity to compete, and in particular Judy Stewart, who she described as "the best woman competitor in Canada that I have seen since I have been diving". [6]
In 1963, Stewart won a silver medal at the Sao Paulo Pan American Games in the women's 3 meter springboard. Stewart was described in 1965 as "probably the best internationally known Canadian diver" with a quick, all-business diving style. [7] As there were no 10 meter towers in Eastern Canada, she and Webb would have to travel over 125 miles to Picton, Ontario, where she would dive into a canal off an old windmill, although Stewart noted that it "was only about 8.5 or 9 meters". Her first experience diving from 10 meters was in Vancouver. [4] During the 1965 British Swimming Championships, she won a gold medal in the springboard event with a points total of 131.133 and a silver medal in the high-board. [2]
During the summer of 1965, she had expressed an interest in participating in the 1968 Summer Olympics with an intention of retiring after this event. At that time, she had won the 1-metre diving event for four consecutive years and had won the 3-metre event for the previous three years. [8] Stewart, then known as Judy Brownlee, ultimately announced her retirement from competition in July 1966. [9] At that time, she was described in 1966 as "the best in Canada" when she held 1, 3 and 10-meter diving titles. [4]
During her career, Stewart measured 4 feet 11 inches (1.50 m) in height and weighed around 98 pounds (44 kg). [2] When not diving, she worked for a Toronto fuel firm as a typist, although by August 1963, had already taken three months away from her work to participate in diving competitions around the world. [5] When not diving, she was also a bookkeeper and formerly a gymnast, before giving it up to concentrate on diving. [4] She was married to professional golfer Phil Brownlee in January 1966. [9]
Fu Mingxia is a retired Chinese diver, multiple Olympic gold medalist and world champion. She won the platform-diving world championship in 1991 at the age of 12, making her the youngest diving champ of all time. She is also famous for being one of the youngest Olympic diving champions, having earned a gold at the 1992 Barcelona Games when she was just 13 years and 345 days old. Throughout the 1990s, Fu dominated the sport with her repertoire of extremely difficult dives. During the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Fu won her fourth gold medal, joining Americans Pat McCormick and Greg Louganis as the world's only quadruple Olympic-diving champions.
Émilie-Joane Heymans is a Canadian diver. She was born in Brussels, Belgium and raised in Greenfield Park, a suburb of Montreal. Heymans has won four Olympic medals, two bronze and two silver. She was the first female diver to win medals in four consecutive Olympic games and the first Canadian to win medals in four consecutive Olympics. Heymans also is a one time world champion and has won four Pan American championships as well as one Commonwealth Games championship. In addition she has won multiple medals in all three of these competitions.
Gao Min is a Chinese diver who won gold medals in the springboard event of the 1988 and 1992 Olympic Games.
Phoebe Mills is an American attorney and Olympic medalist who has been active in the sports of artistic gymnastics, diving, speed skating and snowboarding.
Abraham Israel "Abie" Grossfeld is an American gymnastics coach and former gymnast. Grossfeld represented the United States as a gymnast for 15 consecutive years in 35 countries as a member of 26 international United States men's national artistic gymnastics teams including the Olympic Games, World Championships, and Pan American Games.
Beverly Boys is a retired diver from Canada, who represented her native country in three consecutive Summer Olympics, starting in 1968. She won a total number of three medals at the Pan American Games.
Maxine Joyce "Micki" King is an American former competitive diver and diving coach. She was a gold medal winner at the 1972 Summer Olympics in the three meter springboard event.
Dick Kimball is an American former diving champion and diving coach at the University of Michigan. He was the NCAA springboard champion in 1957 and the Professional World Diving champion in 1963. He coached the University of Michigan diving team from 1958 to 2002 and also coached the U.S. Olympic diving teams in 1964, 1980, 1984, 1988 and 1992. He has been inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame and the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor.
Alexandra Lindsay "Alex" Croak is an Australian diver and gymnast who is a dual Olympic representative. She represented Australia as a gymnast at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and after a strong performance at the 2008 Australian national Diving Championships, she was selected for Australia's diving team for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. She is the first Australian athlete to win gold medals at the Commonwealth games in two different disciplines. She was also an Australian Institute of Sport gymnastics and diving scholarship holder.
Milena Duchková is a Czech diver. She competed at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, where she received a gold medal in Platform Diving. She received a silver medal in 1972.
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.
Barbara Ellen Talmage is an American diver. She won a gold medal in springboard diving at the 1963 Pan American Games in São Paulo and competed at the 1964 Summer Olympics and the 1968 Summer Olympics.
Cynthia "Cindy" Shatto was a Canadian diver. She won a gold medal in the 1974 British Commonwealth Games 3 metre springboard event and competed in the women's 10 metre platform event at the 1976 Summer Olympics, where she finished fifth following controversy over the judges' scoring.
Carol Ann Morrow is a Canadian diver. She competed in two events at the 1964 Summer Olympics.
Eniko Kiefer is a Canadian diver. She competed in the women's 3 metre springboard event at the 1976 Summer Olympics. During the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, she won a bronze medal in the 3 meter women's springboard event.
Kathy Kelemen is a Canadian diver. She competed in the women's 10 metre platform event at the 1984 Summer Olympics and won bronze medals in each of the 1982 and 1986 Commonwealth Games.
Anna Dacyshyn is a Canadian former diver, who won the 10 metre platform event at the 1990 Commonwealth Games, and won six national championships. In 2010, she was inaugurated into the University of Toronto Sports Hall of Fame.
Donald "Don" Webb is a Canadian former diver and diving coach, notable for coaching Olympic athletes including Beverly Boys, Judy Stewart and Milena Duchková. He would later coach the Canadian national diving team around 1968 and the men's Olympic team in 1976. Although a professional diver, Webb entered coaching by a chance opportunity to judge a gymnastics competition. His diving career was ended when he fell awkwardly from a dive into a pool and lay unconscious at the bottom for under a minute.
Linda Cuthbert is a Canadian former diver and present sports director of Commonwealth Sport Canada since 2006, having also served as a technical official for several commonwealth games. During her diving career, Cuthbert won a bronze medal in each of the 1975 and 1979 Pan American Games platform diving events, as well as a gold medal in the 1978 Commonwealth Games 10 metre highboard event. Cuthbert began diving at age 10 and started to take it seriously in 1967, when she had a series of different coaches until settling with Don Webb, who became her permanent coach.
Jennifer McArton is a former Canadian diver. During the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, she won a silver medal in the women's 10 metre highboard event.