Elizabeth Ferris (diver)

Elizabeth Ferris

Elizabeth Ferris (right) in 1961
Personal information
Born	(1940-11-19)19 November 1940 Bridgwater, Somerset, Great Britain
Died	12 April 2012(2012-04-12) (aged 71)
Height	1.57 m (5 ft 2 in)
Weight	54 kg (119 lb)
Sport
Event	Springboard diving
Club	Metropolitan Diving Club
Medal record Women's diving Representing  United Kingdom Olympic Games 1960 Rome Springboard Summer Universiade 1961 Sofia Springboard 1961 Sofia Platform Representing  England British Empire & Commonwealth Games 1958 Cardiff 3m Springboard 1962 Perth 3m Springboard

Elizabeth Anne Esther "Liz" Ferris (19 November 1940 – 12 April 2012) was a British diver. She was the third of four children to Roy Ferris, a dairyman and Dorothy Philomena. Raised in central London, she attended Francis Holland School and was a member of the Mermaids Swimming Club which was notable for training female athletes for the Olympics. Ferris won a bronze Olympic medal in the women's 3 metre springboard event at the 1960 Rome Summer Olympics.

After her diving career, she worked in medicine and was an advocate for changing perceptions of women in sport. Her efforts were recognised by an Olympic order medal in 1980 and a lifetime achievement award by the British Olympic Association in 2011. Ferris's legacy was in her steadfast work to enhance women's opportunities in the Olympic games, as well as her work on gender biology, which encouraged the IOC to revise their definition of male and female bodies.

Ferris had one daughter to husband Julian Steven. She suffered with breast cancer from 2008 and died at home four years later in April 2012. At the time of her death, no other British female diver had won an Olympic medal in diving since her bronze medal in 1960.