Catie Ball

Personal information
Full name	Catherine Northcutt Ball Condon
Nickname(s)	"Catie"
Nationality	United States
Born	(1951-09-30) September 30, 1951 (age 60) Jacksonville, Florida
Height	5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)
Weight	128 lb (58 kg)
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Stroke(s)	Breaststroke, medley
Club	J.E.T.S.
College team	University of Florida
Medal record Women's swimming Competitor for  United States Olympic Games Gold 1968 Mexico City 4×100 m medley relay Pan American Games Gold 1967 Winnipeg 100 m breaststroke Gold 1967 Winnipeg 200 m breaststroke Gold 1967 Winnipeg 4×100 m medley relay

Catherine Northcutt Ball Condon (born September 30, 1951), née Catherine Northcutt Ball, is a former American international swimmer and Olympic gold medalist. At the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Mexico, she won a gold medal as the anchor swimmer for the U.S. 4x100-meter medley relay team. Ball is a former world record holder in the 100-meter and 200-meter breaststroke events, and is remembered as a teenage star who was the dominant female breaststroke swimmer of her generation.

Early years[link]

Catie Ball was born in Jacksonville, Florida in 1951.^[1] As a teenager, she swam for the J.E.T.S. swim team in Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) competition and attended Robert E. Lee High School in Jacksonville.^[2] In December 1966, she tied the world record of 1:15.7 in the 100-meter breaststroke at the international swim meet at the Hall of Fame pool in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.^[3] While swimming for the Lee High School Generals swim team, she won the 1967 Florida 2A state high school championships in the 200-yard individual medley and the 100-yard breaststroke events, setting Florida state records in both.^[4][5] Her Florida record in the 100-yard breaststroke stood for eleven years.^[4][5]

International swimming career[link]

At the 1967 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Ball won three gold medals in the 100-meter and 200-meter breaststroke events, and by swimming the breaststroke leg for the winning U.S. team in the 4x100-meter medley relay.^[6][7] In the process, she set a new world records in all three events.^[7] During the course of 1967, she set world records in all four individual breaststroke events as a 15-year-old.^[8]

Despite having to overcome mononucleosis and missing several scheduled meets in early 1968,^[9][10] Ball was the favorite to win three gold medals at the 1968 Summer Olympics.^[4] She was the reigning world record holder in all four breaststroke distances and bettered her own world records in the 100-meter and 200-meter breaststroke at the U.S. Olympic Trials in August 1968.^[11][12] She arrived at the Mexico City Olympics, however, with a case of influenza.^[4] She won her only Olympic medal, a gold, as a member of the winning U.S. 4x100-meter medley relay team by swimming the breaststroke leg of the four-person relay.^[13] Sharing the gold medal honors were her relay teammates Kaye Hall, Ellie Daniel, and Susan Pedersen.^[14] In the 100-meter breaststroke final, Ball led close to the finish but physical exhaustion overwhelmed her,^[4] and she finished fifth.^[1] She was too ill to swim in the subsequent qualifying heats of the 200-meter breaststroke and was scratched from the event.^[4][10]

College coaching career career[link]

After the Olympics, Ball received a special scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida,^[15] but effectively dropped out of competition swimming because there were no women's college swim teams at the time and because of her desire to lead a more "normal" life.^[4] As an undergraduate senior at the University of Florida, she was hired by athletic director Ray Graves to be the first head coach of the newly organized women's Florida Gators swimming and diving team in Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) competition during the 1972–1973 school year. In their first year of intercollegiate competition, Ball's Lady Gators swimmers were undefeated in dual meets and placed second at the AIAW national championship during her single-season tenure.^[16]

Ball graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor's degree in education in 1973.

Life after swimming[link]

Ball currently resides in Pensacola, Florida.^[4] In the time since retiring from competition swimming at the age of 17, she has been a college swim coach, kindergarten teacher, junior swim coach, housewife and interior decorator.^[4][17] Ball and her business partner have operated a successful interior decorating business, "Beside the Point," for the past decade.^[2] She and her husband Tom Condon have three children and a grandchild.^[4]

She was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1976,^[18] and the Florida Sports Hall of Fame in 2010.^[4][16]

See also[link]

	Biography portal
	Olympics portal
	Swimming portal

• Florida Gators
• History of the University of Florida
• List of University of Florida alumni
• List of University of Florida Olympians
• University Athletic Association
• World record progression 100 metres breaststroke
• World record progression 200 metres breaststroke
• World record progression 4x100 metres medley relay

References[link]

Records
Preceded by Galina Prozumenshchikova	Women's 100 metre breaststroke world record holder (long course) December 28, 1966 – September 2, 1972	Succeeded by Cathy Carr
Preceded by Galina Prozumenshchikova	Women's 200 metre breaststroke world record holder (long course) July 9, 1968 – April 7, 1971	Succeeded by Julia Bogdanova