Catie Ball - International Swimming Career

International Swimming Career

At the 1967 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Ball won three gold medals in the 100-meter and 200-meter breaststroke events, and by swimming the breaststroke leg for the winning U.S. team in the 4x100-meter medley relay. In the process, she set a new world records in all three events. During the course of 1967, she set world records in all four individual breaststroke events as a 15-year-old.

Despite having to overcome mononucleosis and missing several scheduled meets in early 1968, Ball was the favorite to win three gold medals at the 1968 Olympics. She was the reigning world record holder in all four breaststroke distances and bettered her own world records in the 100-meter and 200-meter breaststroke at the U.S. Olympic Trials in August 1968. She arrived at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, however, with a case of influenza. She won her only Olympic medal, a gold, as a member of the winning U.S. 4x100-meter medley relay team by swimming the breaststroke leg of the four-person relay. Sharing the gold medal honors were her relay teammates Kaye Hall, Ellie Daniel and Susan Pedersen. In the 100-meter breaststroke final, Ball led close to the finish but physical exhaustion overwhelmed her, and she finished fifth. She was too ill to swim in the subsequent preliminary heats of the 200-meter breaststroke and was scratched from the event.