Mary Sears (swimmer)

Mary Jane (née Sears) Parks (born May 10, 1939) is an American former competition swimmer and 1956 Olympic Bronze medalist.

Swim training
Mary Jane began swimming around the age of five, then competed in age group meets at country clubs. By thirteen, she was seriously training at the Walter Reed Swim Club's 40-yard pool at Washington Army Hospital in Washington, D.C. At Walter Reed, she was coached by James Campbell, who would later coach at the University of Pennsylvania, and become an Olympic coach for the U.S. team in 1964. Between 1954-57, she competed in six National meets and became the National breast stroke champion in all the competitive distances.

In her peak years of training, she would run up to two miles, do weight training, sit-ups for her core, and complete five 2 1/2 hour swim training sessions per week with a 3 and 4 hour swim sessions on weekends. Prior to a national meet, she often trained three sessions a day, completing 5-10 miles in each session. After retiring from competition, she conducted clinics and presented exhibitions.

1956 Olympics
In August 1956, while swimming for Walter Reed Swim Club, she broke her own 200 meter National Breaststroke record with a time of 2:58.2 at the Olympic Swimming trials in Detroit.

Having qualified, she represented the United States at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, where she won a bronze medal for her third-place finish (1:14.4) in the women's 100-meter butterfly, finishing behind fellow Americans Shelley Mann and Nancy Ramey. 1956 was the first year Butterfly was held as an individual Olympic event, with the American women taking all three medals. The Women's team was coached by Jack Cody that year and took six of the eleven medals won by the U.S. Men's and Women's team.

She also competed in the women's 200-meter breaststroke in the '56 Olympics, finishing seventh in the event final with a time of 2:57.2, which broke her own prior American National record set in the trials.

Swimming career highlights
In her swimming career, she won eight AAU titles, four outdoor and four indoor. In the 1955 Pan American Games she took gold in the 4×100 metre medley swimming with Coralie O'Connor, Betty Mullen, and Wanda L. Werner, who was not an Olympian. She also won a silver in the 200 meter breaststroke, one of her signature events.

Master's swimming
In her 30's, Mary Jane continued to swim and train as a recreational competitive swimmer with the D.C. Masters, in the Potomac Valley, part of United States Master's Swimming from around 1972-1978, where she placed very well in her age group, including a number of national top ten finishes. She specialized in Breaststroke, the Individual Medley, relays, and occasionally butterfly. In 1975 and 1978, she was listed as a Master's All American. She held national age group records, and in 1974 held a 200-yard breaststroke record for age group 35-39 of 2:54.7. In relay events, she held two Masters American National Records for the over 35 age group in the 200-yard Medley and Freestyle relays.

Personal life
After retiring from her early years as a competitive swimmer around 1957, she was married to William R. Parks, a former West Point Graduate and graduate Civil Engineering student at Purdue. The couple raised four children, and both she and her husband enjoyed golf as a pastime, as William had been a golf team captain at West Point in 1958. She is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.