Nancy Simons

Nancy Joan Simons (born May 20, 1938), later known by her married name Nancy Peterson in 1959, is an American former competition swimmer and a 1956 Melbourne Olympic silver medalist in the 4x100-meter women's freestyle relay. She was an American record holder in the 100 and 400-meter freestyle, if briefly. Swimming for San Rafael Elks Swim Club under Hall of Fame Coach Beth Kaufman and later the accomplished Chicago Town Club under Coach Walter Schlueter, in addition to her freestyle records, she demonstrated stroke proficiency first in backstroke and later won regional competitions in individual medley events. She attended Northwestern University for two years and, after transferring, graduated Stanford University in 1959. With a family history of service to America, Simons's paternal grandfather Manley H. Simons had a career as a U.S. Naval Admiral. Her future husband Donald Peterson would serve as a Naval officer as well. With the San Rafael Elks, she was coached by International Swimming Hall of Fame inductee Beth Kaufman as early as June 1950, and continued to represent the Elks Club at least through 1953. Kaufman was one of the originators of age group swimming in America and chaired the National Age Group committee from its inception through the first critical ten years. She later represented the Chicago Town Club in Chicago, Illinois. It seems unlikely Simons ever lived in Chicago throughout her time swimming for the Chicago Town Club during her High School years at Drake High School, as she swam at least through 1953 with the San Rafael Elks Swim Club in San Rafael, California, and was always assigned a California San Marin County area home location in her competition during High School, living in Kentfield, near San Rafael, and around 15 miles North of San Francisco. She also lived in Belvedere, Californial, eight miles South of San Rafael, and North of San Francisco. She swam and trained with the Chicago Town Club during her years at Northwestern University in 1955-56.

While representing the Chicago Town Club, she was trained and managed by Hall of Fame Coach Walter Schlueter. Well-known in the swimming community and highly accomplished, Schlueter mentored swimmers on every American Olympic team from 1948-1972. Schlueter was known as a stroke specialist in multiple strokes, and for teaching the rhythm method for pace, which centered on awareness of stroke count, and creating a race strategy that maximized stroke efficiency to conserve energy so a swimmer could plan when to accelerate against an opponent. An accomplished program, in 1950, prior to Simons's participation, the Chicago Town Club won the AAU National Team Championships.

Pre-Olympic competition In 1954, Simons set a U.S. long course record in the 400-meter freestyle event. She also held a 200-yard freestyle record.

On February 19, 1956, at the Central AAU women's meet in Chicago, Simons won three events, leading the Chicago Club to the team championship. She was awarded the high point trophy at the meet for capturing the 400 yard individual medley in a record time of 5:58, the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:43.5, and the 500-yard freestyle in 6:38.6. She also swam in the 400-yard medley relay which placed first with a time of 4:55.6.

Collegiate education With a partial scholarship, she attended Northwestern University, in the Chicago suburb of Evanston beginning around the fall of 1955, continuing to swim primarily for the Chicago Town Club, as Northwestern would have no Varsity women's swimming team until 1973. After two years at Northwestern, she transferred to Stanford University graduating in June, 1959. The Australian women's team was strongly favored to win the event having soundly broken the standing world record two times in the prior eight weeks. The Australian team boasted three individual freestyle medalists and standout Dawn Fraser. In a closer race than some expected, the American women's 4x100 freestyle relay team swam a 4:19.2, finishing only 2.1 seconds behind the Australian team that swam a time of 4:17.1. American Shelley Mann, who swam second, helped the U.S. recover from a lead begun by Australian standout Dawn Fraser, despite Frasers slow start. At the 1956 Olympics, the Head U.S. Olympic coach for the women's team was Stan Tinkham, who spent some time working with Nancy at the Olympics and had formerly coached 4x100 relay teammate Shelley Mann.

Simons also competed individually in the women's 100-meter freestyle, but did not advance beyond the event semifinals, finishing in ninth place overall with a time of 1:06.1.

Marriage In February, 1959, Nancy was engaged to Donald W. Peterson, and the couple married that summer. Having transferred from Northwestern, she was a Senior at Stanford University at the time, and graduated around June of 1959. Donald Peterson attended Oregon State, and completed a graduate degree in Business from Stanford in 1959, where the couple likely met. Peterson served as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1959. The couple had children and welcomed daughter Karen Ann in November 1966 while living in Lucas Valley, California.

Honors As a Senior at California's Sir Francis Drake High School, Nancy received the Seymour Memorial Award, presented to the most outstanding girl in the state, and one of the highest honors presented in California at the High School level. The award was sponsored and presented by the California Scholarship Foundation. Significant in the presentation of the award, was her straight A High School transcript. By her High School Senior year, Simons was also a recipient of a Bank of America Language Arts Certificate and cup and zone awards.