Jane Fauntz

Who was Jane Fauntz?

Jane Fauntz Manske was a national champion swimmer and diver, and a member of the United States Olympic teams in 1928 and 1932. She was the bronze medalist for springboard diving at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Fauntz was born in New Orleans. Unable to compete in high school swimming competitions in Chicago because of a ban on female interscholastic athletics in Illinois, Fauntz competed as a teenager for the Illinois Women's Athletic Club swimming and diving teams. In March 1928 she established world records for the 100-yard breaststroke and 100-meter breaststroke at a dual meet against a Canadian team.

At the AAU swimming indoor national championships in Chicago in 1929, Fauntz won two national titles within the space of one half hour, winning the one-meter springboard and 100 meter breaststroke titles.

An Olympian at the age of 17 in the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, Fauntz finished in 5th place in the 200-meter breaststroke. Her specialty, however, was diving. Describing Fauntz during the Olympic diving competition, author Paul Gallico wrote in the New York Daily News:

"..Her marvelous body flowed through the dives with the smoothness of running quicksilver."