Background
Hall was born in Tacoma, Washington, and attended Woodrow Wilson High School in Tacoma.
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Kaye Hall
Edit ProfileCareer
She trained with the Tacoma Swim Club with coach Dick Hannula. In December 1967, she became the first woman to swim the 100-yard backstroke in under one minute. Swimming the lead-off backstroke leg of the relay, she set a new Olympic record of 4:28.3 with American teammates Catie Ball (breaststroke), Ellie Daniel (butterfly), and Susan Pedersen (freestyle).
She added a bronze medal for her third-place finish in the women"s 200-meter backstroke, finishing behind fellow American Pokey Watson (2:248) and Canadian Elaine Tanner (2:2740).
After the Olympics, she attended the University of Puget Sound and continued to swim for the Tacoma Swim Club with Dick Hannula. She retired from competitive swimming in 1970.
Hall was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame as an "Honor Swimmer" in 1979. She now works as an art teacher in Mukilteo, Washington, a suburb of Seattle.
Achievements
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Hall made her international debut at the 1967 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, where she won a silver medal in the 100-meter backstroke behind Canadian gold medalist Elaine Tanner. As a 17-year-old, she won two gold medals and a bronze medal at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. She won her first gold medal as a member of the winning United States. team in women"s 4×100-meter medley relay. She won a second gold in individual competition, in the women"s 100-meter backstroke, recording a new world record (1:062) and besting Canadian Elaine Tanner by half a second (1:067). At the 1970 World University Games in Turin, Italy, she won three golds in the 100-meter backstroke and the 4×100-meter freestyle and 4×100-meter medley relays.
Membership
She is also a member of the Puget Sound University Athletic Hall of Fame and the Washington State Sports Hall of Fame.
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Born
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Nationality
United States