Diann Nelson, Synchronized Swimmer

Diann Marie Nelson never could swim enough.

Just three weeks before her death, the former synchronized-swimming champion was performing ballet moves in a rehabilitation pool at Northwest Hospital.

``It was an absolutely perfect ballet leg,'' said Gail Brennen, her sister and former duet partner. ``It would be judged a perfect 10.''

Nelson pursued perfection in the swimming pool for years, capturing national and world titles, and then pushed a new generation of students toward Olympian heights.

She died Saturday of cancer at age 38.

Her mother, Helen Smith, said her daughter had rallied three weeks ago and, of course, wanted to get in a pool.

``She said if she could just swim, she would get better,'' Helen Smith said. ``It lifted her spirits like you wouldn't believe. It was an inspiration to all of us.''

When Helen Smith first took her daughters to swimming lessons with the 1932 Olympic champion Helene Madison in the Moore Hotel Pool, Smith couldn't imagine what she was starting.

``We just wanted to be sure they knew how to swim. It just started out as a little recreation, and it blossomed into a lifetime,'' Smith said.

Madison recruited Nelson, then 6, and her sister for the Seattle-Minneapolis Aqua Follies, shows featured in Minneapolis and as part of Seafair at the Green Lake Aqua Theater.

In their teens, Nelson and Brennen swam for the Washington Athletic Club.

The sisters won a regional duet championship in Amateur Athletic Union competition, and Nelson teamed with Charlotte Jennings Davis to win a national AAU duet championship. The three went on to join the Santa Clara Aquamaids in 1970, winning a world championship.

``Diann had tremendous drive. She had possibly more ambition and drive than anybody else I've seen,'' said Brennen, recalling days involving six hours of workouts. ``She wanted to swim all the time. The rest of us would say, `Let's just take the day off,' and she wouldn't have it.''

After returning to the Seattle area, Nelson and her sister taught synchronized swimming for two years at the Washington Athletic Club. They then joined forces with Jennings Davis at the Seattle Aqua Club.

As competitors, the trio always dreamed of synchronized swimming being part of the Olympics. As coaches, they helped bring together and develop 1984 Olympic gold medalists Tracie Ruiz-Conforto and Candy Costie.

When Nelson and Brennen brought their students to the Seattle Aqua Club in Bothell, Costie was one of their students, while Ruiz was a student of Jennings Davis.

``Diann and her sister were Candy's first coaches . . . and they were really directly responsible for her major interest in that sport,'' said Muriel Costie, Candy's mother. ``All through the years they were the most supportive. . . . We just had great fondness for Diann. She was a very brave, wonderful role model for Candy to follow all of her life and she did.''

After coaching at the Seattle Aqua Club for five years, it was time for Nelson to move on, her mother and sister said.

She earned a business degree at the University of Washington in 1984, became a certified public accountant, and worked for the Washington State Gambling Commission, auditing legal gambling operations.

She also pursued many other interests, including golfing and traveling, while continuing recreational swimming.

In 1986, she married Andrew T. Nelson and 21 months ago she became a mother.

``The thing she was proudest of in her life was her little daughter Erinn,'' said her mother.

Nelson is survived by her husband and daughter in Mukilteo, her mother and father, Don, in Mill Creek, her sister, in Mill Creek, and a brother, Bob Smith, of Seattle.

Memorial services for Nelson are scheduled for

2 p.m. Jan. 19 at the University Presbyterian Church in Seattle. Remembrances are urged to the church's Deacon's Fund.