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Mary T. Meagher

Olympics Bound Again

Meagher took five months off from swimming the year she graduated from college, to work as a teacher's aide and have a normal life. However, as the 1988 Olympics approached, she began training hard, at age twenty-three. This time, she would get to compete against the East German swimmers, and she also had hopes of breaking her own 200-meter record. To her disadvantage, she would be competing against teenagers, ever reminded that she was just sixteen when she set her standing world records.

At the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Korea, Meagher won the bronze medal in the 200-meter butterfly and a silver for her butterfly leg in the 400-meter medley relay. Disappointed that she did not set another world record, she was still ranked number one in the world for 1988 in the 200-meter butterfly.

Awards and Accomplishments

1979	Gold medal, 200-meter butterfly, Pan American Games, with a time of 2:09.77, breaking world record by .09 second; broke this record in preliminaries at Long-Course Senior National Swimming Championships, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with a time of 2:08.41; at finals on the same day, broke this record with a time of 2:07.01
1980	First place, set world record in 100-meter butterfly at Indoor National Swimming Championships, with a time of 59.26; at mock Olympic Trials in Irvine, California, reduced her 200-meter record to 2:06.37
1981	Gold medal, 100-meter butterfly, at Long-Course Senior National Swimming Championships, Brown Deer, Wisconsin, setting a world record with a time of 57.93; gold medal, 200-meter butterfly at same event, setting world record of 2:05.96
1982	Gold medal in 100-meter butterfly and silver medal in 200-meter butterfly at World Championships
1983	Gold medal, 200-meter butterfly, National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championships
1984	Gold medals in 100-meter butterfly, 200-meter butterfly, and 4 × 100 medley relay at Olympic Games in Los Angeles, California; gold medals, 100-meter and 200-meter butterfly, 200-meter freestyle, Indoor National Swimming Championships
1985	Gold medal, 100-meter and 200-meter butterfly, NCAA Championships; gold medals, 100-meter and 200-meter butterfly, Short-Course Senior National Championships; gold medals, 100-meter and 200-meter butterfly, Long-Course Senior National Championships; won Honda Sports Award for Swimming, for 1984-85 season
1986	Gold medal, 200-meter butterfly, NCAA Championships; gold medal in 200-meter butterfly, silver medal in 100-meter butterfly, bronze medal in 200-meter freestyle, World Championships
1987	Gold medal in 100-meter and 200-meter butterfly, NCAA Championships; won Honda Sports Award for Swimming, for 1986-87 season
1988	Gold medal, 200-meter butterfly, national championships; won 200-meter butterfly at Sundown Swim to Seoul in Boca Raton, Florida; won 100-meter and 200-meter butterfly at Pepsi Open in Charlotte, North Carolina; silver medal in 400-meter medley relay and bronze medal in 200-meter butterfly at Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea
1993	Inducted into International Women's Sports Hall of Fame; inducted into International Swimming Hall of Fame
2002	Inducted into the Bay Area (California) Sports Hall of Fame

Additional topics

Famous Sports StarsSwimmingMary T. Meagher Biography - "the Butterfly Picked Me", Chronology, Madame Butterfly, Olympics Only A Dream, But Meagher Sets Records - CONTACT INFORMATION