Sports
Margaret Woodbridge
1902–1995 · competition swimmer
Detroit-born Olympic gold medalist who swam for the Detroit Athletic Club and was a member of the first-ever U.S. women's Olympic swim team in 1920.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
aged 93- Birth name
- Margaret Darling Woodbridge
- Also known as
- Margaret Presley
- Detroit years
- 1902–1920s
- Field
- Sports
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Woodbridge trained at the Detroit Athletic Club under Hall of Fame coach Matthew Mann and became one of the strongest freestylers in the country in the early 1920s. She set national records in the 200-yard and 500-yard freestyle, and in 1920 she qualified for the first American women's Olympic swimming team ever sent to the Games, held that year in Antwerp, where she won gold. Closer to home she also won the Women's Aquatic Club's grueling four-mile open-water race across the Detroit River, running from the Fellowcraft Athletic Club to the Detroit Boat Club, finishing more than two minutes ahead of the field. Her success gave the Detroit Athletic Club's young women's swim program, still a rarity for its time, national standing alongside the dominant Women's Swimming Association of New York.
Highlights
- Born in Detroit, January 6, 1902
- Gold medalist, 1920 Antwerp Olympics, part of the first U.S. women's Olympic swim team
- National record-holder in the 200-yard and 500-yard freestyle
- Won the Women's Aquatic Club's four-mile Detroit River swim
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Played here · 1910s–1920s
Detroit Athletic Club
Where she trained under coach Matthew Mann and swam competitively.