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After winning five golds at the 1959 Pan American Games, Von Saltza lived up to her advance billing by taking three Olympic golds in 1960. Her 400m freestyle victory ended the long-standing Australian domination of this event, but her victory at Rome was not unexpected because at the U.S. Trials she had set a new world record of 4:44.5 to become the first American woman to break the five-minute barrier. Von Saltza swam for the Santa Clara Swim Club and led them to many team victories at the nationals, in addition to winning 19 individual AAU titles. After she retired from competitive swimming, she entered Stanford, where she majored in Asian history and eventually became a computer engineer with IBM. She later served the U.S. women’s swim team as an assistant coach/chaperone at the 1968 Summer Olympics. Von Saltza was more properly the Baroness von Saltza as her grandfather, Count Philip, came to America at the turn of the 20th century and she is still recognized by her titled name in the "Who’s Who of Swedish Nobility". (According to Sveriges Ridderskap och Adels Kalender 2007 all 14 counts and barons von Saltza are US citizens, None remains in Sweden). Von Saltza was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1966. |
