Donna de Varona

Donna de Varona won two gold medals in the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games in the 400-meter medley and 4x100-meter medley at the age of 17. She made her Olympic debut four years earlier at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy at the age of 13. Her performance at the 1964 Summer Olympics came after a stellar performance at the 1963 Pan American Games in which she won two gold medals in the 4x100-meter freestyle and 4x100-meter medley. After the 1964 Olympics she returned to the United States as an American hero and signed on as a sportscaster with ABC’s Wide World of Sports. At age 17 she became the youngest sportscaster in television history and one of the first women sportscasters ever. During her legendary career with ABC she earned an Emmy Award and two Gracies while covering a wide variety of sporting events and 17 winter and summer Olympic games. In 2006 she was inducted into the Museum of Television & Radio’s first class of fifty “She Made It” pioneers in media. In 2004 she was inducted into the Women’s Hall of Fame, and went on to serve as the Vice President of the International Olympic Committee in 2012.