San Francisco Speedster

Ann Curtis did more than was expected of her last week at Kansas City. Unbeatable in middle-distance swims, the 18-year-old San Franciscan won, as expected, the Women's National A.A.U. 400-meter, 800-meter and 1,500-meterfree-style championships. But she also defeated National Champion Brenda Helser of Portland, Ore. in the 100-meter sprint. Already it was being said that Ann Curtis, first U.S. girl to break a world record in 15 years (she has broken both the 880-yd. and 800-meter free style), is the greatest freestyler ever developed in the U.S.--perhaps anywhere. She is classed with Helen Madison, Katherine Rawls, and has not yet reached her peak.

Each day for the past four years the pretty 6 ft. 160-pounder, who learned her swimming at the Crystal Plunge Club, has done from two to four miles in the water. When she stepped to the pool's edge for the Pacific 880-yd. championship last month, the announcer predicted a new U.S. record. Then a soldier emerged from the crowd, handed Ann Curtis a florist's box and grinned. Said he: "Forget the American record. Go for the world's record." So she lowered by seven and a half seconds the world mark of 11:16.1 set by Denmark's Ragnhild Hveger in 1937.

Opening the florist's box, she found three orchids and a note: "To the girl who just broke the world's record. . . . Just a soldier."

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