Jill Sterkel

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Women's Swimming
Olympic medal record
Gold	Montreal 1976	4x100m Freestyle Relay
Gold	Los Angeles 1984	4x100m Freestyle Relay
Bronze	Seoul 1988	50m Freestyle
Bronze	Seoul 1988	4x100m Freestyle Relay

Jill Ann Sterkel (born May 27, 1961) is a former freestyle swimmer from the United States, who won four Olympic medals during her career. She first did so at age fifteen, in the 4x100m Freestyle Relay at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada. Twelve years later she captured the bronze medal in the 50m Freestyle in Seoul, South Korea. Sterkel is the first woman to make four US Olympic swim teams (1976, '80, '84, and '88), although she didn't compete in 1980 (Moscow) due to the boycot.

In 1971, Sterkel appeared in her first US National Championship meet at the age of ten. At age fourteen, she qualified for the 1975 Pan American Games, the same year she made her first appearance in the world rankings, with a 12th spot in the 100m freestyle. Her first Olympic medal came in 1976 in Montreal, when her 4x100m freestyle relay defeated the favored East German team and won the gold medal in the world record time of 3:44.82, with teammates Kim Peyton, Wendy Boglioli and Shirley Babashoff. Four years later, at the 1980 Moscow Games, Sterkel’s Olympic aspirations were dampened – U.S. President Jimmy Carter’s boycott of the U.S. Olympic Team from competing in Moscow.

Sterkel's second gold medal came as a member of the 1984 Olympic 4x100m freestyle relay team, when she competed in the preliminary heat. When the 50m freestyle became an Olympic event in 1988, she tied with Katrin Meissner (GDR) for the bronze medal with a career best time of 25.71 behind Kristin Otto (GDR) and Wenyi Yang (CHN). She also received a second bronze medal for swimming the 4x100m freestyle relay – preliminary heat. Sterkel was elected captain of the U.S. Team for three Olympic Games – 1980, 1984, and 1988.

Sterkel started her swimming career as an age group swimmer with coach Don Garmon (1966-1971). She then moved to El Monte Aquatics Team (1971-1979) in her home state of California, where she trained under Don LaMont, competing in her first U.S. Nationals at age 12. By 14, she was competing at the 1975 Pan American Games where she won gold as a member of the 4x100m freestyle relay and took home a silver medal in the 100m freestyle. Sterkel was then coached by Hall of Fame coaches Paul Bergen (1979-1983), Richard Quick (1983-1988) and Mark Schubert (1988-1991), while at the University of Texas in Austin.

Sterkel won gold medals at the 1978 World Aquatics Championships (4x100m freestyle relay) and the 1979 Pan American Games (4x100m freestyle and medley relays), where she also won a silver in the 100m freestyle. Sterkel competed at the 1982 World Aquatics Championships in Guayaquil, Ecuador, winning silver medals in both relays and a bronze in the 100m freestyle. At the 1983 Pan American Games in Caracas, she won the gold on the freestyle relay. All totaled, Sterkel captured twenty U.S. National Championships and 21 NCAA/AIAW National Championships, while swimming for the University of Texas Longhorns.

Sterkel was also a member of the 1986 U.S. National Water Polo Team that won a bronze medal at the 1986 World Aquatics Championships in Madrid, Spain. From 1986 to 1991, she was assistant women’s swim coach at the University of Texas, and head coach from 1992 to present.

Sterkel won nearly every award available in swimming, from Olympic gold to the Broderick Cup U.S. National Female Athlete of the Year and a Texas-record 28 All-America honors. She was named assistant women’s swimming coach for the 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Canada and the 2001 World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan.

Sterkel has had a profound impact on the Texas women’s swimming program. She placed two swimmers on the US Olympic teams: Whitney Hedgepeth (1996) winning silver medals in the 100m and 200m backstrokes and gold on the 4x100m medley relay (preliminary heat), and Erin Phenix (2000) winning gold on the 4x100m freestyle relay (preliminary heat). Sterkel was inducted into the Texas Women’s Athletics Hall of Honor and was the 2000 Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year. She was inducted in the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 2002.