As a swimming star, sports commentator, and lobbyist for women's sports, Donna de Varona has worked to widen the margins of opportunity: "I had my dream, and I achieved it. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Her sister is competition swimmer and Olympic gold medalist Donna de Varona. 1979), Miriam Cooper, Aunt Friend: Burgess Meredith, Alan Thicke Joanna Kerns (born February 12, 1953) is an American . Rhinehold was born in Holidaysburg, Pennsylvania, to German parents, John Helwig. She is a celebrity swimmer. During an interview, Kerns said, "I kind of was always looking for the next thing; I auditioned for anything, hoping to get a big break" (Lifetime's Intimate Portrait). After her Olympic triumph she retired from competition. SPOUSE. Her main sports focus as an adolescent became swimming. Joanna Kerns relationship list. Career: Swimmer, 1960-64; ABC, Wide World of Sports, Olympics broadcaster, 1968, 1972, 1976; NBC, Sports World, Today Show, broadcaster, 1978-83; commentator, consultant, writer, coproducer, contributor: Wide World of Sports, ABC News, Good Morning America, ESPN, ABC radio, 1984; Roone Arledge, president of ABC News and Sports, ABC, assistant, 1983-86; NBC, Olympics, broadcaster, 1996, 2000; Sporting News Radio, radio sports commentator, 1998; Sporting News, Olympics reporter, 2002. "[4] De Varona retired from swimming and began her career in the male-dominated world of sports broadcasting. She is also a board member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame and serves as an adviser to Jordan's Prince Feisal's Generations for Peace Foundation and Tony Blair's Beyond Sport Initiative. At age seventeen, after the 1964 Olympic Games, de Varona retired from competitive swimming. GROWING PAINS - "Graduation Day" (Flashback Scenes) - Airdate: May 4, 1988. Several books highlight de Varona's accomplishments, including Anne Johnson, Great Women in Sports (1996), and K. Christensen, A. Guttman, and G. Pfister, International Encyclopedia of Women and Sports (2001). Donna de Varona, (born April 26, 1947, San Diego, California, U.S.), American athlete and sportscaster who, after a record-breaking amateur career as a swimmer, established herself as an advocate for womens and girls sports opportunities. Women's Soccer World, www.womensoccer.com/ (January 11, 2003). At the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, De Varona swam for the U.S. team in the preliminary heats of the women's 4100 freestyle relay, but she did not receive a gold medal because she did not swim in the event final. She also testified on behalf of Title IX legislation in front of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. On the heels of minor roles in such films as Ape (1976) and Coma (1978), roles in Magnum, P.I., The A-Team, and Hill Street Blues made Kerns a familiar face . De Varona serves on the executive board of Special Olympics International and is a member of the International Olympic Committee's Women and Sports Commission. Always up for a challenge, it is no surprise that the individual medley was always de Varona's favorite event. "Sporting News Radio's Donna de Varona wins second-consecutive Gracie Allen Award," Sporting News Radio, http://radio.sportingnews.com/about /pres/20010426_donna.html (June 4, 2003). Therefore, that information is unavailable for most Encyclopedia.com content. Her older sister, Donna de Varona, is an Olympic gold medal swimmer, winning two gold medals in the 1964 Olympics. De Varona has never backed down from supporting justice for women in amateur and professional athletics. Celebrity status and her role as the quintessential Californian mermaid had both positive and negative consequences for her. . Donna de Varona (Olympic swimmer Family Member: Daughter: Ashley (b. ", Biographical essays on de Varona include Shawn Ladda's entry in Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, Sports Figures (2002), and Janet Woolom's profile in Outstanding Women Athletes (1992). Setback and loss have motivated de Varona all her life. "Donna de Varona," Sporting News Radio, http://radio.sportingnews.com/experts/donna_de_ varona/index.html (May 15, 2003). "The world is political and you have to fight. . Swimmer, two Olympic Gold medals in 1964. Joanna Kerns is a director on ABC's A Million Little Things. In 1974 she and the tennis champion Billie Jean King cofounded the Women's Sports Foundation, and it continues to be an extraordinarily persuasive voice for encouraging women to participate in sports and to fight to achieve gender equality in sport. A promoter of women in sport, in the mid-1970s, she joined Billie Jean King in establishing the Women's Sports Foundation. the third child of four. Age, Height, Par Claudia Jessie (House of Anubis) Age, Eye Surgery, Why did Louise Lombard leave "CSI"? In 1960, when she was 13, she qualified for the U.S. Olympic team in that event. Donna Elizabeth de Varona (nacida el 26 de abril de 1947) es una ex nadadora estadounidense. From its inception in 1969, to 1988, de Varona has sat on the board of the Special Olympics. Her younger sister is actress-director Joanna Kerns, who played Maggie Seaver on the ABC sitcom Growing Pains. She served as that organizations first elected president (197684). . Donna De Varona Net Worth. Relationship history. This legislation ensured equal opportunity of women's sports in schools and colleges throughout the nation. She won an Emmy Award in 1991 for her report on a Special Olympics athlete. Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, Thematic Series: The 1960s, Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, Thematic Series: Sports Figures, DeFrantz, Anita 1952 Kerns stated in an interview, "Donna was the golden girl. "The effort I had put forth in my swimming career gave me the stamina to become an activist for Olympic athletes and women, raising money and awareness," de Varona told USA Swimming online. As an adult, she lamented in a magazine interview, "I spent all my money on bubble gum so I could bribe my way into the Little League, and I wound up with a uniform with number '0' on it. I'd like to. De Varona left ABC once before, in 1976, after facing what she termed "discriminatory barriers" as a female sportscaster. "I spent all my money on bubble gum so I could bribe my way into the Little League," she said in an interview with Women's Sports & Fitness magazine. Two years later, when the Summer Olympics were in Atlanta, de Varona anchored Good Morning America 's Olympic coverage, while broadcasting the days' results on ABC Radio. Anita DeFrantz did not grow up dreaming of Olympic glory, yet she glided to a bronze medal as an America, Music or Sports Management Jobs ." Joanna is the daughter of Martha Louise and David Cruz Thomas de Varona. American swimmer This beating gave her the incentive to do what were then phenomenal training stintsfive and six hours a dayat the Berkeley Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) swim club and at the famous Santa Clara Swim Club. A teenage American female's having the opportunity to appear on a major channel and present "sports" to a prime-time audience cannot be underestimated. ", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joanna_Kerns&oldid=1142232629, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles lacking reliable references from January 2021, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2021, Articles with unsourced statements from July 2009, Turner Classic Movies person ID same as Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Episode: Firehouse Quintet (Listed as Joanna DeVarona), Episode: "Something Battered, Something Blue", Episode: "The Importance Of Not Being Too Earnest", Episode: "The Benefit Of The Right Track", Episode: "The Slender Threads That Bind Us Here", Episode: "Happy Birthday, Bon Voyage, Goodbye For Now", This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 06:43. Stories about the achievements of male athletes usually dominated such sports programs. Nevertheless, the thirteen-year-old de Varona was a reserve for the U.S. swim team and the youngest American team member of the Olympics. She loved the game so much that in elementary school, she chose the desk closest to the door so she could be the first one out on the field when the bell rang to signal the end of class. De Varona covered her 12th Olympic Games in 2000 when she signed on with NBC for the Games in Sydney, Australia. Her father, David Thomas DeVarona, was an insurance agent, and her mother, Martha Louise (ne Smith), was a clothing store manager. . In 1991, when she received a Gold Medallion from the International Swimming Hall of Fame (ISHOF), a press release from the ISHOF listed her job as vice president of ABC Sports. Below we countdown to Donna De Varona upcoming birthday. During the 1950s and the 1960s athletic opportunities for women, much less young girls, were few and far between. USA Swimming. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); (function() { Joanna Kerns (Joanna Crussie DeVarona) was born on 12 February, 1953 in San Francisco, California, United States, is an Actress, director. These days, de Varona balances her life between broadcasting, family, and women's advocacy. (b. Notable Sports Figures. Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, Thematic Series: The 1960s. In 1965 she became the first woman to cover sports on network television for the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) program Wide World of Sports. Her younger sister, Joanna Kerns, was an actress known for playing Maggie Seaver on the sitcom "Growing Pains." Subsequently, she was called back to the Senate to consult on amendments to the landmark Olympic legislation and eventually worked to promote and safeguard Title IX of the Equal Education Amendments Act which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any educational institution receiving Federal funding. She has also directed episodes of television shows including Dawson's Creek, Titans, Scrubs, Private Practice, Psych, Felicity, Grey's Anatomy, Privileged, ER, Ghost Whisperer, Army Wives, Pretty Little Liars, Switched at Birth, The Goldbergs, This Is Us, and Fuller House. Updates? in political science in 1986). Joanna Kerns, February 12, American television actress Joanna Kerns was born on February 12, 1953, in San Francisco, California, United States of America, Her birth name was Joanne Crussie DeVarona. Embed. . For all time, at the moment, 2023 year, Joanna Kerns earned $6 Million. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Encyclopedia.com. Throughout the early 1960s, de Varona, who was called the "Queen of Swimming," dominated the sport. de Varona was raised in Lafayette, California, near San Francisco. 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