Cathy Carr

Who is Cathy Carr?

Catherine L. Carr is an American former competition swimmer, Olympic champion, and former world record-holder in two events.

Carr was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and graduated from Highland High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She trained for the Olympics with the Coronado Swim Club under 1960 Olympic gold medalist Mike Troy. She is is the first Olympic gold medalist swimmer from New Mexico.

Carr represented the United States at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. She won a gold medal swimming the breaststroke leg for the first-place U.S. team in the women's 4x100-meter medley relay, together with her teammates Melissa Belote, Deena Deardurff, and Sandy Neilson. The American medley relay team set a new world record of 4:20.75 in the event final. Individually, Carr also won a gold medal in the women's 100-meter breaststroke, and setting a new world of 1:13.58 in the final.

She held the long course world record in the 100-meter breaststroke from September 2, 1972 to August 22, 1974. Her world record in the 4x100-meter medley relay survived from September 3, 1973 to September 4, 1973. Carr was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame as an "Honor Swimmer" in 1988.