Athletes - Shirley Babashoff

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	Athletes - Shirley Babashoff

Shirley F. Babashoff (born January 31, 1957 in Whittier, California) is a former swimmer from the United States, who set six world records and earned a total number of eight Olympic medals in her career. She won a gold medal in the 400 meter freestyle relay in both the 1972 and 1976 Olympics. At the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, she took a silver medal in four events as the competition was dominated by the East German swimmers. The East Germans were later accused of using performance enhancing drugs to win the gold medals. Although Shirley Babashoff never won an individual gold medal in Olympic competition, she was still classified as an excellent swimmer. It is interesting to note that Shirley Babashoff's time in winning the silver medal in the 400 meter freestyle at the 1976 Olympics would have defeated Don Schollander for the gold medal in the same event when Schollander won the 400 freestyle twelve years earlier at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo.

In 1982 she was inducted in the International Swimming Hall of Fame. Babashoff was unfairly referred to as "Surly Shirley" because of her public accusations of cheating by the East German swimmers. Her brother Jack Babashoff was also an Olympic swimmer. Long after her Olympic career ended, she became a single mother and took a job with the United States Post Office delivering mail in Orange County, California.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Shirley Babashoff ]

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