The pretty, crop-haired blonde had already qualified for the U.S. Olympic swimming team (100-meter free style and 400-meter relay) and set an American 100-meter mark (1:04.6) in the process. Shelley Mann of Washington, D.C.'s Walter Reed Swim Club should have been riding high, relaxed and easy. "But look at her," said her young (24) coach, Stan Tinkham (TIME, April 18, 1955). "You can almost see the adrenaline pumping through her. She'll swim each race a hundred times before she goes into the pool. Maybe that's why she's a champion, or maybe she's a champion despite that tension. I don't know which."
Whatever...
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