Celebrating 30 Years of Leadership
Global ATHENA Leadership Award Recipient


Micki King
Olympic Gold Medalist

Micki King, is the 1972 Springboard Diving Olympic Gold Medalist. King, a retired US Air Force Colonel, served 26 years on active duty. Her second career was Assistant Athletic at the University of Kentucky where she served 14 years.

The native of Pontiac, Michigan, graduated from the University of Michigan in 1966, where she was coached by five-time US Olympic Coach, Dick Kimball. King competed in two Olympic Games, two Pan American Games, and won international diving titles in 15 countries. She is an inductee in seven Hall of Fames, including the prestigious United States Olympic Hall of Fame.

The gold medal she won in Munich is one of the Olympic Games’ most exciting comeback stories. In the 1968 Olympics at Mexico City, King was leading the competition going into the final three dives. On the second of her remaining dives, a miscalculation caused King to hit the board breaking her left arm. Despite the mishap she gallantly tried her last dive, but dropped from first to fourth. No medal.

During the four long years between the 1968 and 1972 Olympic Games, she did double duty with her Air Force job and her intensive training program. She earned 10 national US diving titles on the way to her second Olympics. It was in Munich, where Micki King captured her gold medal doing the same dive she did with a broken arm four years earlier.

Following her Olympic victory, King turned to coaching when she was assigned to the then all-male Air Force Academy (1973-77). In 1974, her cadet diver won the NCAA Three Meter title making King the first woman to coach a male to a NCAA championship (in any sport) – a distinction she still holds today. King returned to the Academy in 1983, to become the Assistant Athletics Director, while once again coaching. She was named NCAA coach of the year three times and coached 11 All-Americans, including two women cadets with three national titles between them.

While training for the Munich Games in the early 70’s, King actively supported Title IX which became Law in 1972. Once retired from competition, she turned her focus to Athlete Rights and was elected by her Olympic peers to serve as the first Athletes Advisory Council (AAC) president (1973-78). King also served on President Gerald Ford’s “Commission to Study Olympic Sports.” The findings from this historic commission led to the passage of the Amateur Sports Act of 1978.

In addition to her hands on work with the Girl Scouts Regional Council in Kentucky, King is dedicated to the US Olympians/Paralympians project, World Fit, taking action against Child Obesity. She also serves on the USA Diving Foundation. King has two grown children. She resides in Lexington, Kentucky.