Sybil Bauer

Sybil Bauer was an American backstroke swimmer from Chicago, born on 18 September 1903 to Norwegian immigrant parents, who won the women's 100 metre backstroke at the 1924 Summer Olympics by a massive margin. Olympedia calls her the first great woman backstroker. In 1922 in Bermuda she swam the 440 yard backstroke in 6:24.8, four seconds faster than the men's world record then standing, and over her career she set 23 world records and won six successive AAU 100 yard backstroke championships from 1921. She swam for the Illinois Athletic Club and studied at Northwestern University, where she also played basketball and field hockey and led a campaign for full competitive programmes in women's university sport. She died of cancer on 31 January 1927, aged 23, in her senior year of college.