Mary Ann DuChai competed in the K-2 at the 1960 Olympics, partnered by Diane Jerome. DuChai and Jerome won the 1960 US Olympic Trials, which doubled as the AAU Championship. They also won that title in 1959. DuChai competed for the Turkeyfoot Kayak Club after graduating from Hudson High School, and in 1960, worked as a bookkeeper. DuChai married István “Steve” Hernek, who competed in canoeing for Hungary at the 1956 Olympics, but defected to the United States after the 1956 Hungarian October Revolution. Together they owned and ran the Dune Shore Motel on the Upper Peninsula in Michigan since the early 1960s. Hernek died in 2014 when he fell off the roof of the motel while making some repairs.
United States