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Nina Harmer
Personal information
Full name	Nina Adams Harmer
National team	United States
Born	December 11, 1945 (age 79); Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Height	5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Weight	141 lb (64 kg)
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Strokes	Backstroke
Club	Vesper Boat Club
Coach	Mary Freeman Kelly
Medal record
Women's swimming
Representing the United States
Pan American Games

Nina Adams Harmer (born December 11, 1945), also known by her married name Nina Thompson, is an American former competition swimmer, two-time Olympian, and Pan American Games gold medalist.

Harmer was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and trained with the Vesper Boat Club in Philadelphia under Hall of Fame Coach Mary Freeman Kelly, who had started the program in 1955.^[1]

National swimming career highlights

At the August 1961 Women's Swimming and Diving Championships in Philadelphia, she won both the 100 and 200-meter backstroke events, as well as swimming as a member of the 400-meter freestyle relay.^[2] On August 22, 1963, while swimming with the Vesper Boat Club, she lowered the National AAU record in the 100-yard backstroke a full second to 1:04.2 at the Badger Swim Club Water Carnival Meet in Larchmont, New York.^[3]

Summarizing her career, between 1961 and 1965 she won eight national swimming championships, consisting of four individual and four relays.^[4] By 1963, she had been a National AAU backstroke champion four times.^[3]

'60 Rome Olympics

As a 14-year-old, she represented the United States at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.^[1] She competed in the women's 100-meter backstroke, but did not advance beyond the preliminary heats. Swimming a 1:13.8, she had the 15th fastest time of all the preliminary swimmers.^[1]^[5]

63 Pan Am games

At the 1963 Pan American Games in São Paulo, Brazil, she won the gold medal in the women's 100-meter backstroke.^[6]^[7]

High school graduation

In 1963, she graduated Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, an old and well-established Co-ed independent college preparatory day school in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She married by the age of twenty.^[4] In August 1965, she demonstrated the Backstroke at the Badger Sports Club Water Carnival in Larchmont, New York, outside Mamaronek.^[8]

'64 Tokyo Olympics

4x100 medley relay

A year later at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, Harmer swam for the gold medal-winning U.S. team in the preliminary heats of the women's 4×100-meter medley relay.^[9] She did not receive a medal under the 1964 international swimming rules because she did not swim in the relay event final.^[5]

Women's 100-meter backstroke

Individually, she also competed in the women's 100-meter backstroke, finishing fifth in the event final with a time of 1:09.4, and though it was her best record time, she finished behind American teammates Cathy Ferguson (first), and Ginny Duenkel (third).^[1]^[10]^[11]

Post-Olympic competition

She continued to swim after the Olympics, and at the Senior Women's AAU Swimming Championships in April, 1966, while still swimming for the Vesper Boat Club she helped set a record of 4:06.0 for the 440-yard medley relay with teammates Jane Barkman, Lee Davis and Martha Randall.^[12]

Swimming with the District of Columbia Masters in her late twenties, she was a United States Masters All American swimmer with first place age group finishes in backstroke and medley events in both 1974 and 1975 and was nationally ranked with 16 top ten age group swims from 1974 to 1976.^[13]

In the late 1980s she was living in the Maryland area, around Dorchester County where she had formerly swum for D.C. and Maryland Masters Swimming, and may have served as an area director and volunteer for Maryland's Spring Midshore Special Olympics held at Cambridge South Dorchester High School in April 1989.^[14]^[13]

Honors

In 1995, she was inducted into the Springside Hill Academy Athletic Hall of Fame.^[4] Her primary youth coach Mary Freeman Kelly Spitzer said that one of her greatest qualities, "was that even while she was very young, she maintained a balanced perspective on her activities and interests." Despite her demanding swimming career, "she had also her allegiance to her school life..but she more than managed to keep afloat in both worlds without drowning.”^[4]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Sports-Reference.com, Olympic Sports, Athletes, Nina Harmer. Retrieved October 14, 2012.
^ "LA Girl Swim Star", The San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco, California, 14 August 1961, pg. 50
^ ^a ^b "Seven U.S. Swim Records Bettered", The Standard-Star, New Rochelle, New York, 23 August 1963, pg. 22
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Nina Harmar Thompson '63". Springside Chestnut Hill Academy. Retrieved September 27, 2023.
^ ^a ^b "Nina Harmer, Olympedia Bio". Olympedia. Retrieved September 27, 2023.
^ Canadian Press-Associated Press, "B.C. Oarsmen Take Gold Medal," The Leader-Post (April 29, 1963). Retrieved October 22, 2012.
^ HickokSports.com, Sports History, Pan American Games Women's Swimming Medalists Archived 2012-12-05 at archive.today. Retrieved October 22, 2012.
^ "Colins and Geoghegan Bust U.S. Swim Marks", The Daily Times, Mamaronek, New York, 24 August 1965, pg. 33
^ Sports-Reference.com, Olympic Sports, United States Swimming at the 1964 Tokyo Summer Games. Retrieved October 20, 2012.
^ Sports-Reference.com, Olympic Sports, Swimming at the 1964 Tokyo Summer Games, Women's 100 metres Backstroke Final. Retrieved October 20, 2012.
^ Her best time in "Golden Ripples Sparkle Olympic Pool", Portland Press Herald, Portland, Oregon, 15 October 1964, pg. 39
^ "Vesper Streaks to AAU Record", The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 16 Apr 1966, pg. 23
^ ^a ^b "Individual All American Listings for Nina Thompson, United States Masters Swimming". United States Masters Swimming. Retrieved September 27, 2023.
^ Dean, Gail, "Area Special Olympians Compete", The Star-Democrat, Easton, Maryland, 17 April 1989, pg. 1