Norma Thomas

Although she was born in Cheshire, Norma Thomas moved south to Poole, Dorset with her family as a youngster. She joined the Poole Swimming Club before joining London´s Isleworth Penguins in 1959, when she duly won the Southern Counties diving title. Also in 1959, Thomas captured the ASA national 1-metre springboard title. The following year, she won the first of two consecutive national high-board titles and also went to the Roma Olympics and finished sixth in the platform event. Thomas won the last of her national titles in 1961 when she won the 3-metre springboard championship and in 1962 she married her first husband, Scottish-born Jim Leiper, a national swimming champion and 1958 Cardiff British Empire and Commonwealth Games silver medallist.

After nearly two years away from competitive diving, Thomas made her comeback at the trial for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics at Crystal Palace, and finished second to Kathy Rowlatt. The following year, Thomas was recalled to the Great Britain team for the international meeting with Hungary in Budapest. Norma Thomas died in her 40s in 1984 but her memory lived on with the annual presentation of the Norma Thomas National Memorial Trophy to the ASA´s Junior Diver of the Year.