SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) – Utah has had its fair share of Olympic representation.
Take, for example, Zach Lund, the skeleton skater from Salt Lake City who last participated in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Or the 10 native Utahns participating in the 2020 Games in Tokyo.
While these Olympians are just carving their names in the history of the Games, there is another Utahn who reached Olympic status decades ago.
The year was 1928. Soon-to-be 13-year-old Dorothy Poynton-Hill was en route to the Amsterdam Olympics after qualifying for the U.S. team at just 12-years-old.
During the games, she became the youngest U.S. Olympian to medal, earning silver for springboard diving, according to her biography from the Utah Women’s History.
Dorothy was born to English immigrant parents in Salt Lake City before moving to Los Angeles. After medaling in Amsterdam, Dorothy went on to win the gold medal in platform diving during the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles.
BERLIN – AUGUST 1: The three medallist on the Women’s high board diving event (L-R) bronze winner Kathe Kohler of Germany, silver winner Velma Clancy Dunn of the USA and gold winner Dorothy Poynton-Hill of the USA, during the XI Olympic Games on August of 1936 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Getty Images) 
The U.S medal winners in the women’s high diving event posing at the Summer Olympic Games at Los Angeles, Calif. From left to right: Dorothy Poynton, first; Georgia Coleman, second; and Marian Dale Roper, third. (AP Photo) 
Three stars of the water event in the recent Olympic Games at Berlin returned August 28, 1936 on the President Roosevelt. Left to right they are: Dorothy Poynton Hill, Platform diving champion; Katherine Rawls, second in springboard diving event and a member of the 400 meter relay team that placed third; and Marshall Wayne, first in the platform diving for men. (AP Photo) 
The United States women’s swimming and diving team and the men’s hockey team are shown, July 22, 1932 as they arrive at Los Angeles, California for the Olympic games. The women left to right: Anna Mae Gorman, Lenore Kight, Marion Dale Roper, Jane Fauntz, Louisa Robert, Katherine Rawls, Dorothy Poynton, Dorthea Dickinson, Josephine McKim, Jane Cadwell, Norene Forbes and Edna McKibben. (AP Photo) 
Photographed is the Womens Swimming Team as they sailed July 15, 1936 on the Manhattan for Berlin and the Olympic Games. Left to right are; Edith Mobridge, Eleanor Holm Jarrett, Katherine Rawls, Dorothy Poynton Hill, Lenore Kight Wingard. (AP Photo)
Four years later, after becoming one of the first athletes to attend three consecutive Olympic games, Dorothy competed in the 1936 Games in Berlin. According to the Salt Lake City History archives, Dorothy brought home a gold in platform diving and a bronze in the springboard event.
Dorothy won at least one of every U.S. diving title during her career before teaching swimming and diving at her own “Dorothy Poynton Aquatic Club” in L.A., according to the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
Dorothy passed away in 1995, but is considered the most famous Olympian from the Beehive State, according to a new report.
Want to cheer on Utah athletes competing in Tokyo? Here’s who to root for.
