2007.1.15

• photography

Photograph of a blonde woman in the center (Zoe Ann Olsen) flanked on either side by two men (Bill Groeniger and Charles J. Hunter). Groeniger on left is wearing a pinstriped jacket with a bow tie and Hunter is wearing a pinstriped jacket and a full length tie. Behind them is a wall with a framed picture of a sailing vessel. White marks frame the top and sides for cropping purposes. There are line drawn crop marks in the margins. Highlights have been added to dark colors and shadows to light colors for reproduction purposes. Newspaper caption inserted in rear of photograph: "Zoe Ann Olsen, Athens Club diving star, receives the award for winning the James E. Sullivan nomination. Participating in ceremony are Bill Groeniger (left), Athens president, and Charles J. Hunter, president of the Pacific Association of the Amateur Athletic Union." Caption is stamped, "TRIB D OCT 14 1947." Additional notes on back include: "Tuesday Sports Olsen 3 Col #7502" in pencil and "COMMERCIAL STUDIOS PHOTOGRAPHERS, OCT 7 1947, 1116 Franklin St. Gl. 9717, Oakland, California.

Olsen, Zoe Ann (Mrs. Jensen), Diving: http://www.hickoksports.com/biograph/olsenzoeann.shtml (5/3/2007)b. Feb. 11, 1931, Council Bluffs, IAOlsen's father managed a muncipal swimming pool and her mother taught both swimming and dancing, so she began swimming before she was 3 and won her first dancing medal before she was 4. At 6, she won a trip to Hollywood in a dance competition and was being touted by some as the new Shirley Temple.But acrobatics, the trampoline, and finally diving became her major interests. When her father was about to go into the service during World War II, he moved the family to California so that Zoe Ann could have better coaching.She won her first national championships at the age of fourteen, in the AAU indoor 1-meter and 3-meter springboard. She was also the indoor 1-meter titlist in 1946, 1947, and 1949 and the 3-meter champion in 1948 and 1949.In AAU outdoor meets, she won the 3-meter springboard four years in a row, from 1946 through 1949 and the 1-meter springboard in 1948 and 1949.Olsen won a silver medal in the springboard event at the 1948 Olympics. The following year, she married Jackie Jensen, a football star at the University of California who became a major league outfielder. She retired from competition after the 1949 national championships and gave birth to the first of three children in 1950.As the 1952 Olympics approached, Olsen decided to get back into competition. After only two weeks of practice, she won a spot on the U. S. team and took a bronze medal at Helsinki. She was the only woman diver to medal in both 1948 and 1952.She and Jensen were divorced in 1963, remarried in 1964, and divorced again in 1970.

Used: Oakland Tribune