Her name was Maxine Joyce King, but lots of people in her hometown of Pontiac, Michigan, called her Micki. There are many lakes in that region, and little Micki enjoyed water sports. Even at the age of four, she liked to climb up on her father’s shoulders so he could toss her high into the air and she could flip over into the water.
At the age of 10 Micki joined the YMCA and saw a diving board for the first time. Testing the board, she felt almost as if she were leaping from her dad’s shoulders. Micki began to take up diving in earnest. Along with other children she learned different kinds of dives. At the age of 15 she entered the Toledo YMCA meet and won. At 16 she entered the Olympic diving trials in Detroit but didn’t do well at all. Still, she was learning, gaining experience.
Micki was at the University of Michigan when she came to diving coach Dick Kimball. She was still very green compared to other divers. Kimball encouraged her to work on the 10-meter platform (more than 30 feet high). Micki was just a bit scared, but she forced herself to climb that platform again and again. She improved tremendously. By the time she graduated in 1966, Micki had won three U.S. Nationals titles and the Canadian diving championship.
In 1966 Micki enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and graduated from Officers Candidate School with a commission as a second lieutenant. Then she was sent back to the University of Michigan to work with the Reserve Officers Training Corps. That was perfect, because she could also continue to study with coach Kimball.
Micki qualified for the 1968 Olympics. On the 3-meter board she went into a reverse one-and-a-half layout–a spring into the air, body straight; one and a half backward somersaults; and finally into the water, fingertips first.
Something went wrong. As she plummeted toward the water, her left forearm hit the board. She almost fainted with pain, but she tried her best to keep her arms straight. It didn’t work. The judges saw what had happened.
The trainers applied ice to her forearm to stop the bleeding. Anyone else might have quit the competition right then, but Micki bravely tried to go through with it. But the agony was too much. Her final dive was terrible.
Micki wore a cast for four months, and after it came off she could hardly straighten her arm. It seemed that her diving career was over. But Micki loved diving and nothing could keep her away very long. Army officials granted her permission to participate in the World Military Games in Pescara, Italy. She was the first woman ever to compete with men in an international diving competition. It took time to work herself back into shape, but she managed to finish fourth in springboard and third in platform.
Finally, in 1972, Captain Micki King went to the Olympics in Munich. In the back of her mind was the memory of that dreadful, painful accident four years earlier. She could not bring herself to attempt that dive again. But there were others she could–and did–execute perfectly. Micki King was determined: she would not give in to fear of another accident.
Nothing could stop Micki in the 1972 Olympics. She won her coveted gold medal.
Later she became the first woman ever accepted as a faculty member of a military academy when she was named diving coach at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. There she helped others overcome their fear of heights and compete in amateur diving.
From The Giant Book of More Strange But True Sports Stories by Howard Liss. Illustrations by Joe Mathieu.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micki_King#1968_and_1972_Olympic_Games
During the ’68 Olympics, she was in first place when she broke her arm on the 2nd to last dive. After that, and her last dive, she fell to fourth place.