Olympic swimmer Ann Curtis dies at 86

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SAN RAFAEL, Calif., July 27 (UPI) -- U.S. Olympic award winning swimmer Ann Curtis died at her California home, her family said. She was 86.

Curtis died June 26 at her home in San Rafael of complications from Alzheimer's disease, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.

The San Francisco native was regarded as one of the country's greatest female swimmers in the 1940s. She set a record by winning 34 national Amateur Athletic Union championships during her career from 1943 to 1948.

At the 1948 Olympic Games in London, Curtis won two gold medals and one silver in freestyle events.

"Was it ever exciting!" she recalled in a 2008 interview with the San Francisco Chronicle. "I was lucky that the Games restarted at a time I was still competing. There were awfully good swimmers before my time, and it was too late for them."

After returning home from the Olympics, Curtis attended the University of California Berkeley, where she met her husband, Gordon Cuneo, in 1949.

The couple opened the Ann Curtis School of Swimming in San Rafael in 1959. Curtis trained swim teams for 25 years and synchronized swim teams for 12 years.

Curtis is survived by four of her five children, nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.