[2] After retiring from competitions, she enjoyed a long and varied career in acting, coaching, writing and journalism.

[3][4] Born in Newport, Rhode Island, Riggin learned to swim at the age of six, in Manila Bay in the Philippines where her father, a U.S. Navy paymaster, was stationed.

Riggin first took up diving in 1919 at the age of thirteen; she practiced in a tide pool on Long Island[2] because there were no training facilities provided in those days for female divers.

[2] She was only 14 years and 120 days old when she won a gold medal in the women's 3 metre springboard diving ('fancy diving') event at the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp,[9][10] also making her the youngest female Olympic champion (a record that was surpassed in 1936 by 13-year-old American diver Marjorie Gestring).

[6] She retired from competitions in 1925 and spent her time helping to organize exhibitions and swimming demonstrations overseas.

[5] She starred in Billy Rose's first Aquacade at the 1937 Cleveland Exposition, which she also helped to organize.

[2] As a result of her fundraising and motivational presentations, she was selected to serve as Grande Dame of the Swimming Hall of Fame in 1988.

[7][8] Aileen (Riggin) Soule died in October 2002[c] in a nursing home in Honolulu, Hawaii of natural causes.