I took my daily swim at the Beverly Hills Hotel pool despite the presence of onlookers

We can't all win Olympic medals. Even I never won one.

Traveling to swimming meets took me beyond my small-town existence, gave me a hint of the exciting world outside of my own home.

The newspapers loved pinup pictures of pretty young swimmers, and as a national champion, I got more than my share of space in the sports pages.

I was all in gold sequins for Million Dollar Mermaid, 50 feet in the air

Three events. Three gold medals. I was news, big news, in the sports world.

I was 15, and the years of hard swimming had packed muscle on my frame and made me very strong. Not as strong as a football player, but strong enough to inflict heavy damage.