Cindy Shatto

Cynthia Shatto (June 19, 1957 October 3, 2011) was a Canadian diver. She won a gold medal in the 1974 British Commonwealth Games 3 meter springboard event and competed in the women's 10m platform event at the 1976 Summer Olympics, where she finished fifth following controversy over the judges' scoring.

Cindy Shatto
Personal information
Full nameCynthia Shatto[1]
Born(1957-06-19)June 19, 1957[1]
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
DiedOctober 3, 2011(2011-10-03) (aged 54)[1]
Miramar, Florida, United States
Height5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)
Weight126 lb (57 kg)
Spouse(s)
William Weingartner
(19852011)
Sport
CountryCanada
Event(s)Platform diving
Coached byDon Webb
RetiredJune 1978

Shatto began competitive diving when she was 8 years old and won all diving events of her age group. To further develop her skills, in 1970 she and fellow diver Linda Cuthbert moved into the family home of her coach Don Webb, where she would train for up to five hours a day, six days a week, only taking rest on Sunday. She was admitted to hospital in 1972 and needed her gall bladder removed due to eating too much greasy food, leaving her weak and unable to train during the winter of 1971–1972. During the mid-1970s, she lost interest in the sport and her attitude changed when she compared her lifestyle to that of others who did not have the pressures of international competitions, but was encouraged by fellow diver Beverly Boys to reflect on the positive aspects of the sport and she took a more positive attitude thereafter.

Shatto retired from competitive diving in 1978 after growing tired of a nomadic lifestyle and in summer 1990 moved with her family to Binghamton, New York where she became a diving coach at Binghamton University. She died of lung cancer in October 2011 at the age of 54.

Career

Childhood and early development

Born in June 1957,[2] Shatto began roller skating at the age of 2 and later took up acrobatics, modern dance and learnt to play the violin.[3] She started competitive diving at the age of 8 in her family's back yard pool in Willowdale, Toronto. She would play diving games with her father, using a long garbage sweeping pole for her to run and leap over "like a porpoise". Under the early coaching of John Dickinson, Shatto won "just about every age-group meet she entered".[4] Among her first recognised competitions was the Ontario under-10s 1-metre diving championships, where at the age of 8 she scored 84.20 points and won in her age group.[5] At the age of 9, she would practice 33 feet (10 m) platform diving at the Summerville open-air pool, although as it was built on the edge of Lake Ontario, sometimes the wind would blow her off the tower. Occasionally, the extreme cold weather would turn her blue after 20 minutes of practicing, but she never complained.[4] A few weeks after her ninth birthday, she became the Ontario diving champion in the girls under-10 age category with a score of 132.75[6] and followed it up by becoming the United States diving champion in her age group.[7]

By the age of 10, she had experience with playing the violin, acrobatics, contemporary dancing and baton twirling. Her mother described her as persistent, saying that "if she discovered something she couldn't master, she'd get mad, sulk, but stick it out until she got better."[4] Shortly before turning 11, as a member of the Etobicoke Diving Club, she won the under-14 tower event in the Ontario open championships, which brought her competitive record to 26 first place finishes, two second placed finishes and one third place finish across 29 events.[8] Shortly before her twelfth birthday, she finished in second place during the 1969 Ontario open 3-metre diving championships in the girls' under 15 category.[9] At the age of 13, she was invited to train with national coach Don Webb, which required her to move away from home and live with Webb's family, the first two years being in Winnipeg.[10]

During these earlier years, she got used to eating excessive amounts of chips and gravy, with other children using it as a nickname for her. In 1972, she was admitted to hospital with constant stomach pains due to excessive amounts of greasy food consumption. Her gallbladder had to be removed, leaving her weak and unable to train during the winter of 1971–1972.[4]

Competitive diving

By 1973, she had been living with her coach Don Webb and his family for three years and would train for four to five hours daily, six days a week or longer when preparing for a major competition. She and Linda Cuthbert, another diver who also lived with the Webb family, would train for an hour at lunchtime, with a heavier workload on Saturday and a rest day on Sunday. Describing her life in 1973 up to that point, she expressed that "Diving has been my whole life, just about. I enjoy it. I like the competition, the travel and I like meeting people. It has kept me from being bored." Shatto would show little emotion during a competition, except upon winning and did not like her father watching her diving as they would both get nervous.[4] In the same year, she represented her country at the world championships held in Yugoslavia.[3]

In 1974, under Webb's coaching, Shatto won a gold medal in the British Commonwealth Games in Christchurch on the 3 meter springboard diving event.[11] Following her commonwealth success, she had established herself as the likeliest contender in Canada to win a gold medal in the 1976 Summer Olympics, being described as "one of Canada's best divers". Don Webb described her as being a natural diver with class, suggesting that "what other divers have to learn comes naturally to her. She's got the style and determination".[12]

Depression

She went through a "low" depressive period in the mid-1970s by her own admission and "lost the sparkle" for competitive diving, admitting her "attitude was zero". Her performances around this time were described as only "barely" reflecting her talent as a top three diver in Canada. She considered giving it up to live a more traditional life of partying, cottage vacations and curfew-free summers. Her father, who was described as being a perfectionist, was unable to understand her reversal in attitude and found it difficult to understand when she expressed her lack of interest in diving. Her older sister Becky was recognised in her high school as being a "female athlete of the year", without the pressures of competition. Shatto began to compare her lifestyle to that of her sister's, thinking that "her life just started to look better than mine". After a period of reflection, she considered the positive aspects of her lifestyle, including international travel and the people she had met. She was offered advice by fellow diver Beverly Boys which she said had "helped put me back together again". She began serious practicing again around August 1975 and accepted that, while happy with her performances, if she were to perform poorly it would be due to lack of practice and not attitude.[13]

Olympics and beyond

She had taken a year out of high school in 1976 to train for the Olympics full time and during the trials said that diving in the Olympics had been a "dream since I began diving". After the five of eight dives, Shatto was in second place but dropped to fifth position following a sixth dive that was scored controversially. The Montreal Gazette at the time expressed the opinion that she had been "cheated out of at least a bronze", suggesting that the Soviet and Swedish judges were bias when marking the dives although Shatto felt that finishing fifth in the world was acceptable.[10] Following the Olympics, she took six-month sabbatical after feeling "physically let down" by not winning anything in the competition. Prior to this, she had not taken more than three weeks off at a time and spent her sabbatical relaxing and did not set foot on a diving board for the entire time. She returned to training in July 1977 and was reported to be "looking toward the world championships" in 1978, with her training consisting of four to five hours a day of diving.[14]

Retirement

She announced her retirement from competitive diving in June 1978 on the eve of the 1978 Commonwealth Games, citing the "nomadic life of a world-class athlete" as being the primary factor in her loss of interest in the sport.[15] She also admitted that the controversy surrounding the Olympics two years prior was a contributing factor in her decision[10] and that she lost her motivation, instead preferring to get a job and earn her own money.[16]

Later life

Swimming pool in Binghamton University, pictured in 2007

In later life, she was an executive secretary with Xerox around 1987[3] and was also an assistant to the owner of Mundial International after this. In June 1990, she relocated with her family to Binghamton, New York where her husband grew up, having grown tired of Florida. It was the first time Shatto had lived in a small town, which she liked due to everything being "family-oriented". She took up a position of a diving coach at Binghamton University which her husband described as having "completely opened her up".[10] She had previously expressed reluctance to become a coach during a 1977 interview, believing that she did not have the "outgoing personality" or the ability to "scream at people" to do the dives they're supposed to.[14]

Personal

During her diving career, Shatto measured 5 feet 7 inches (1.70 m) tall and weighed around 126 pounds (57 kg). She attended Rideau High School[4] and her father, Dick Shatto, was a professional Canadian football player.[2] Her mother was Lynne Shatto (nee Garlough[17]) and Cindy was the third of five children.[4]

A long-term resident of Florida, she was married to William "Bill" Weingartner[2] in February 1985,[18] who met Shatto in 1979 when she entered a restaurant in Tarpon Springs that he managed, in search of a job following her retirement from diving. He noted that he "instantly fell in love" and at the time was unaware of her sporting achievements until their relationship developed.[10] They had two sons,[2] Richard (b. c1981) who also took up diving[3] and Christopher (b. c1989).[10]

She died of lung cancer in October 2011 at the age of 54 following a two year battle.[2]

References

  1. "Cynthia L. Weingartner in the U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014". U.S. Social Security Death Index. October 2011. Retrieved March 27, 2022.
  2. "Olympic diver felt cheated out of a medal". The Globe and Mail. October 4, 2011. Retrieved March 27, 2022 via Proquest.
  3. "Where are they now? CINDY SHATTO Diving". The Globe and Mail. November 11, 1987. Retrieved March 27, 2022.
  4. "What's a nice girl like you doing up there on that board?". The Montreal Gazette. March 3, 1973. pp. 68–69.
  5. "Cindy Shatto Wins Diving". The Expositor. March 28, 1966. p. 9 via newspapers.com.
  6. "Point Claire Boy Diving Champion". The Gazette. July 2, 1966. p. 15 via newspapers.com.
  7. "Top swimmers from Ontario will take part at pool opening". The Sun Times. June 10, 1968. p. 7 via newspapers.com.
  8. "Point Claire divers score". The Montreal Star. May 27, 1968. p. 29 via newspapers.com.
  9. "Liz Carruthers 2nd in Ontario open meet". Edmonton Journal. May 5, 1969. p. 25 via newspapers.com.
  10. "'Fifth best in world isn't bad'". Press and Sun-Bulletin. February 20, 1991 via newspapers.com.
  11. "Sweep for Shatto, gold for Pearce". Winnipeg Free Press. May 25, 1976. p. 55 via Newspaperarchive.com.
  12. "Cindy Loves To Dive". Winnipeg Free Press. May 2, 1974. p. 58.
  13. "Shatto takes competitive plunge again". Calgary Herald. September 5, 1975. p. 34 via newspapers.com.
  14. "Cindy is back, and it's just in time". The Montreal Star. July 29, 1977. p. 33 via newspapers.com.
  15. "Medallist retires". Medicine Hat News. June 30, 1978. p. 13.
  16. "Cindy Shatto retires from diving scene". The Ottawa Citizen. June 28, 1978. p. 30 via newspapers.com.
  17. "Shatto's grandparents 'walking on air'". Tampa Bay Times. February 20, 1974. p. 19 via newspapers.com.
  18. "Cynthia Lynne Shatto in the Florida, U.S., Marriage Indexes". Florida, U.S., Marriage Indexes. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
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