Mary Ann DuChai

Biographical information

RolesCompeted in Olympic Games
SexFemale
Full nameMary Ann•DuChai
Used nameMary Ann•DuChai
Born3 September 1939 in Ravenna, Ohio (USA)
Measurements174 cm / 59 kg
AffiliationsTurkeyfoot Kayak
NOC United States

Biography

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.

Results

Games Discipline (Sport) / Event NOC / Team Pos Medal As
1960 Summer Olympics Canoe Sprint (Canoeing) USA Mary Ann DuChai
Kayak Doubles, 500 metres, Women (Olympic) Diane Jerome 5 h1 r2/3

Olympic family relations