Homestead swimmer's 1932 Olympics star sparkles
Sitting in New York City's luxurious Paramount Hotel in 1932, at the height of the Great Depression, Anna Mae Gorman excitedly wrote to Mom and Pop back home in Homestead: "It sounds unbelievable but it's true. ... I'm still in a daze myself."
Ten hours earlier, Gorman qualified at age 16 as a swimmer for the X Olympiad in Los Angeles. She was, as a United Press report called her, one of "America's greatest mermaids."
A lifetime later, at age 92, she still swims at the pool inside Carnegie Library of Homestead. And with the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing set to open Friday, she remains an Olympic celebrity, being feted today at the library's 110th anniversary celebration.
"I thought I would be famous for about a week to 10 days, but I'm getting more attention now than I did then," said the Munhall woman who uses her married name, Lindberg.
Library officials said they believe Lindberg can provide inspiration to a generation of swimmers who are rediscovering the Homestead library's indoor pool after a recent renovation.
Lindberg was one of four Olympians to come out of the Homestead library -- a social and athletic center built for the community by steel magnate Andrew Carnegie. Susan Laird competed in 1932; Josephine McKim was a bronze medalist in 1928 and a gold medalist in 1932; and Lenore Kight was a silver medalist in 1932 and a bronze medalist in 1936.
Today, the Homestead pool's original white tiles remain but they have been patched to prevent leaks. Workers installed a drop ceiling and brighter lights. Colorful banners drape above the pool lanes and beach-themed decorations hang on the walls.
"There's just so much being changed," said Edward Child, a former professional soccer player who serves as the library's athletic director.
Lindberg's presence at the pool, where she learned to swim, remains a constant. She swims a half-mile three days a week, covering 40 lengths in a half-hour. She still drives herself there, too.
Center of attention
Despite the library's luncheon plans for Lindberg, it will be hard to provide more attention now than she received 76 years ago.
On the five-day train ride from the swimming trials in New York to the games in Los Angeles, Lindberg and her teammates stopped in Homestead at 2:30 a.m. and were greeted by her family and the friends from her "corner gang." With just 50 cents left, she had written ahead and asked them to meet her with more money for the trip west.
Weeks later, the return of Lindberg and Kight brought town officials and the president of U.S. Steel's Homestead Works for a parade on Eighth Avenue. Each woman received enough movie tickets for a year and $150 from local merchants.
"I didn't spend any of it," Lindberg said. "I gave that all to my mother. That was like a fortune to her in the Depression, to take care of the rent."
The daughter of a steelworker, Lindberg first swam in the North Side's Lake Elizabeth while on a vacation to visit her cousin in 1927. Back home, she paid $1 for a three-month membership to the library, receiving pool access and a bar of soap in return.
Lindberg learned to swim in the basement pool and worked her way up to the library's legendary swim team, coached by Jack Scarry. Daily practices lasted for an hour before school, starting at 7 a.m., and resumed for two hours in the afternoon, from 4 p.m. to dinnertime. Lindberg started competing locally, winning so many competitions that Scarry encouraged her to enter the national Olympic trials.
Competing in the 400-meter freestyle, Lindberg wrote home that she had swum "without much hope but lots of fight." She qualified for Los Angeles as an alternate, and she swam in early heats on the United States' relay team.
"Everything about the Olympics was a big moment," Lindberg said.
This summer, Lindberg said she plans to watch Olympic swimmer Dara Torres making a comeback at age 41 with great interest. Still, a lot about the sport has changed.
A very different time
In her day, Lindberg wore a silk swimsuit and quickly changed into a wool coverup after getting out of the pool -- nothing like the high-tech suits drawing controversy this year.
Women in 1932 were allowed to compete in just two sports, swimming and track and field. This time, there are more than two dozen events for women. Then, the games had 1,332 athletes from 37 countries. At the Beijing games, more than 10,000 athletes from 203 countries are scheduled to compete in 28 sports with 302 events.
After the 1932 Olympics, Lindberg continued to swim with the Homestead team, which won national swimming championships from 1933 to 1936 in the 800-meter relay. The team briefly held a world record. The other women from those teams have died or moved away years ago, she said.
Lindberg married a well-known University of Pittsburgh swimmer, Russ Lindberg, and they entered the Western Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame together in 1976. A swim coach at Mt. Lebanon High School, he died in 1995.
Despite her regular swimming routine, Lindberg laughs about talk of a Torres-style comeback for her. She competes only against herself -- and the occasional swimmer who tries to keep her pace in the Homestead pool.
"I'd go in the 90-and-over Olympics," she said.
