Mary T. Meagher

Mary Meagher is the pride of Louisville, Kentucky, and put her name on the map in the swimming world at a young age. At the 1979 Pan American Games in Puerto Rico she broke the world record in the 200-meter butterfly at the age of 14. She’d follow that up world record breaking performances in the 200-meter and 100-meter butterfly at the 1981 U.S. National Championships. The following year she made her World Championships debut and earned gold in the 100-meter butterfly and silver medals in the 200-meter butterfly and 4x00-meter medley, which set the stage for her Olympic debut in 1984. When she arrived in Los Angles for the 1984 Olympic games she was the favorite and delivered, sweeping gold in the 100-meter and 200- meter butterfly and also winning a gold in the 4x100-meter medley. Meagher would go on to win two gold medals at the Pan Pacific Championships in 1985, five gold medals and a silver medal at the 1985 Summer Universiade, and a gold medal, three silver medals and two bronze medals at the World Championships at the 1986 World Championships. She rounded out her career with a bronze medal in the 200- meter butterfly at the 1988 Olympic games in Seoul. During her college days she attended UCLA and starred on the Bruins swim team, winning the Honda Sports Award as the top female swimmer in the nation twice and begin named the outstanding college female swimmer of the year in 1985 and 1987. Meager graduated from UCLA in 1987 with a degree in social sciences.