Aileen Riggin Soule, America's oldest female gold medalist, relaxes by a Waikiki swimming pool. Photo by Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin

Her memories of the 1920 Summer Olympic Games in Antwerp, Belgium, flow like vintage wine from a crystal decanter. The memories are pure, they're rare and they're authentic.

The memories of America's oldest surviving female gold medalist are an Olympic treasure.

"They are virtually all that remains of the 1920 Olympics," wrote Jane Leavy in a half-page story about Soule's Belgian experience in last Sunday's New York Times.

Aileen Riggin was a 4-foot-10, 65-pound eighth-grader from Brooklyn Heights, N.Y., when she stepped off a transport ship to compete in a place where stark vestiges of World War I marred the Olympic city's landscape.

Today, at age 90, the 5-foot-2, 95-pound Honolulu resident for the past 40 years makes it easy to believe she was once an Olympic champion.

Her posture is erect. She's fit. Her gait is quick and confident. She is articulate, sometimes mischievously witty, and her eyes flash at the mention of any historical inaccuracy.

Soule remembers fine details of the uncomfortable crossing aboard the Olympic team's carrier, a rusted old German troop ship called the Princess Matoika. Such as a "charming" rower named Jack Kelly (father of the late Princess of Monaco Grace Kelly); the tiny swim tank built out of canvas and 2x4s in which one swimmer at a time could train while strapped to the side, and the fact that the women's four-to-a-room accommodations were far better than what the men endured. They often slept on the deck.

Aquatics teammates Aileen Riggin, right, and Helen Wainwright relax in Manhattan before the 1920 Olympics. Photo courtesy Aileen Riggin Soule

Soule said the 1920 Olympics marked the first time women competitors wore one-piece bathing suits that exposed the legs. Swimmers wore silk but springboard and platform divers like Soule had to wear wool. The fact that divers were exposed to public view for longer periods necessitated the more modest fabric design.

Soule said she was a diver in 1920 only because she was considered too small to be a swimmer.

But she did swim at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. A pioneer of the flutter kick, she won a bronze medal in the 100-meter back stroke as well as a silver in springboard.

"Oh to be 18 in Paris in 1924! You have no idea how wonderful it was," she said as her eyes twinkled.

In 1920, Soule gained a celebrity status she has never lost. "We were the first, that's why," she said.

There had never been a U.S. women's swimming and diving team until that year. The fact that she came back with a gold medal even though she was a child increased Soule's magnetism with the media. She participated in a parade through the streets of New York City to cheers of thousands lining the sidewalks.

After her 1924 medal achievements, Soule went Hollywood. Having studied ballet and gymnastics at a tender age in Brooklyn Heights, she slipped easily into dancing for Busby Berkele in "Roman Scandals." She also swam in Billy Rose's first "Aquacade" and skated in a Sonja Henie movie.

She still swims three miles a week and set six age group records in the U.S. Masters Swimming Championships in May. She also receives fan mail, which she answers with autographed photos of herself at the 1920 Olympics.

But she said 1996 has been a taxing experience for her. She was flown to Chicago last month to be on the Oprah Winfrey Show. She was also flown to Atlanta last month to be part of Avon's ceremonies commemorating The Olympic Woman. She has received an inquiry from the David Letterman Show, and has had articles about her published in Time Magazine, the New York Times and a number of smaller publications.

She posed in an evening gown, flanked by six Speedo-clad male models, for an ad in the May issue of Vanity Fair. The caption asked which one was the Olympic diving champion.

"It's my favorite," she said with a laugh.

She's in Atlanta now, under the sponsorship of four major U.S. corporations, attending a variety of functions, including the unveiling of an Olympic monument.

As for her historic medals, Soule said she gave her gold medal to her daughter, Yvonne May, who lives with her husband in Zurich, Switzerland. She said she doesn't know where the 1924 hardware went.

But Soule knows one thing: She'll always have Paris.

Age: 90
Hometown: Brooklyn Heights, N.Y.
Residence: Honolulu
Olympics: gold medal, springboard diving, 1920, Antwerp; silver medal, springboard diving, bronze, 100-meter back stroke, 1924, Paris.
Recent: Set six records in 90-94 age group at U.S. Masters Championships in Cupertino, Calif., in May.