About Shirley Babashoff
Shirley Frances Babashoff (born January 31, 1957) is an American former competition swimmer, Olympic champion, and former world record-holder in multiple events. Babashoff set six world records and earned a total of nine Olympic medals in her career. She won a gold medal in the 400-meter freestyle relay in both the 1972 and 1976 Olympics, and she won the 1975 world championship in both the 200-meter and 400-meter freestyle. During her career, she set 37 national records (17 individual and 20 relay) and for some time held all national freestyle records from the 100-meter to 800-meter events. == Early swimming career == After trying private lessons, Shirley began taking swimming lessons around the age of eight at Cerritos College, a junior college in Los Angeles County's Norwalk, California, as did her brother Jack Babashoff, who would also become an Olympic swimmer in 1976. At nine, Shirley swam for the Buena Park Splashers with her brother Jack, later swimming for a club in El Monte, California coached by Don La Mont, a talented coach. Beginning around the age of 13 in 1970, Shirley swam at Golden West College in Huntington Beach for a company-sponsored team, Phillips 66, under coach Ralph "Flip" Darr through her junior year in high school. Darr coached swimmers who swam in four separate Olympics. Shirley attended meets from an early age, and under Darr, she began to set age group records. === Swimming with the Nadadores === After Flip Darr resigned from coaching during her junior year in high school, Shirley began swimming for the Mission Viejo Nadadores, one of America's top swimming programs coached by Hall of Fame Coach Mark Schubert.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.