Pokey Watson

Olympic Champion · Tokyo 1964 · Mexico City 1968

Pokey
Watson

Lillian Debra “Pokey” Watson won Olympic gold at fourteen, broke a world record held by Dawn Fraser at sixteen, and came back to win a second gold at eighteen.

Olympic golds
2
Age at first gold
14
200 m free world record
2:10.5
Hall of Fame
1984
Black-and-white studio portrait of Pokey Watson in 1967, smiling, with short hair and a white top
Pokey Watson, 1967. Photo: Team USA, U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC)

The story

A Santa Clara swimmer on the world stage

Born on July 11, 1950, in Mineola, New York, Watson swam for the Santa Clara Swim Club in California. She raced both freestyle and backstroke at the highest level.

She was only fourteen when she made the U.S. Olympic team for the 1964 Games in Tokyo, where she helped the 4×100 m freestyle relay to gold and a world record. Two years later she took Dawn Fraser’s 200 m freestyle world record. At the 1968 Games in Mexico City she won the 200 m backstroke in Olympic-record time.

In 1984 the International Swimming Hall of Fame inducted her as an Honor Swimmer.

Read more on Wikipedia

Olympic Games

Two Games, two golds

Black-and-white photo of three smiling U.S. swimmers in team jackets holding up their Olympic medals
Pokey Watson with U.S. teammates and their Olympic medals

Tokyo 1964

Women’s 4×100 m freestyle relay

Gold · World record 4:03.8

Watson swam alongside Sharon Stouder, Donna de Varona and Kathy Ellis. The team set a new world record in the final.

Mexico City 1968

Women’s 200 m backstroke

Gold · Olympic record 2:24.8

She won the individual Olympic title in backstroke, four years after winning her relay gold in freestyle.

Career timeline

Milestones

  1. Born in Mineola, New York

  2. Olympic gold, Tokyo

    4×100 m freestyle relay, world record 4:03.8. Also swam the medley relay heats.

  3. World record, 200 m freestyle

    Broke Dawn Fraser’s long-course world record with 2:10.5.

  4. Pan American Games bronze, Winnipeg

    100 m freestyle.

  5. Record passes to Pam Kruse

    Watson held the 200 m freestyle world record for exactly one year.

  6. Olympic gold, Mexico City

    200 m backstroke, Olympic record 2:24.8.

  7. International Swimming Hall of Fame

    Inducted as an Honor Swimmer.

Record & honors

At a glance

Major results and honors
YearCompetitionEventResult
1964Olympic Games, Tokyo4×100 m freestyle relayGold WR 4:03.8
1966World record200 m freestyle (LCM)2:10.5
1967Pan American Games, Winnipeg100 m freestyleBronze
1968Olympic Games, Mexico City200 m backstrokeGold OR 2:24.8
1984International Swimming Hall of FameHonor SwimmerInducted
Color photo of Pokey Watson in later years, smiling and wearing a white flower lei
Pokey Watson in later years
Full name
Lillian Debra Watson (later Richardson)
Born
July 11, 1950, Mineola, New York
Strokes
Freestyle, backstroke
Club
Santa Clara Swim Club
Nationality
United States

Contact

Get in touch

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