CALIFORNIA GIRLS IN GAMES GOLD RUSH
At the Mexico City Olympics, October 19th, 1968, a trio of Californian girls made it 1-2-3 in the 100 metres freestyle final.

Jan Henne of Oakland won the gold in 1:00.0, Sue Pedersen (Sacramento) finished second in 1:00.3, while Linda Gustavson (Santa Cruz) in the same time as Pedersen, was given third place.

Canadian star, Marion Lay, fourth in 1:00.5, was about to false start, but held back when the gun went off. She surfaced well behind the leaders, to finish 4th in 1:00.5.

Lay went on to anchor Canada's 3rd place finish in the 4x100 freestyle relay, splitting 59.5, the only sub one minute relay leg of the Olympics. Was she the fastest woman there? At the Tokyo Olympics, four years earlier, Lay had finished 5th, so she improved one spot between Olympics.

FINAL TALLY
1:00.0 Jan Henne, USA
1:00.3 Sue Pedersen, USA
1:00.3 Linda Gustavson, USA
1:00.5 Marion Lay, CAN

FOOTNOTE: Could Dawn Fraser have won her fourth consecutive Olympic gold, had she not been banned from the sport for a decade by the Australian Amateur Swimming Union?