Susan Doerr

Susan Elizabeth Doerr (January 13, 1945 – February 18, 1972) was an American former competition swimmer, 1960 Olympic competitor, and a 1961 world record-holder in the 100-meter butterfly.

Early swimming Susan was born to Mr. and Mrs. Herbert E. Doerr Jr. in Brwyn Mawr, Pennsylvania, on January 13, 1945. She did not receive a medal at the time, because only relay swimmers who competed in the event final were eligible under the 1960 Olympic rules.

100-meter butterfly world record, 1961 In one of the high points of her swimming career, in August 1961 she set an American and world record in the 100-meter butterfly with a time of 1:08.2.

Continuing to swim against a highly competitive field, she recorded a 1:09.5 for the 100-meter butterfly at the National AAU Senior Women's Swimming Championships in mid-August 1963, but took a fifth place in the event.

Education Doerr graduated from Abington Friends School in Abington, Pennsylvania, in 1963. She had issues with illness during her Senior year in High School, diagnosed as pleurisy, a lung inflammation, and a calcium difficiency and swam only sporadically that year. She had harbored hopes of qualifying for the 1964 Olympics, but 1963 had been a difficult year to maintain the rigorous training schedule required to meet that goal. She enrolled at Chatham College in Pittsburgh in 1963, and trained with the University of Pittsburgh Swimming team, but did not attend practices regularly and later enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania around 1965.

Doerr died on February 18, 1972, in Manhattan in New York City. She had been suffering from depression.