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Name: Debbie Meyer
Lifetime: August 14, 1952 – Present
What She’s Known For: Meyer won the 200-meter, 400-meter and 800-meter freestyle races at the Olympic Games in 1968 when she was only 16 years old.
Why We Love Her: It was 1968 and 16-year-old Debbie Meyer, freestyle swimmer from the United States, was getting ready to compete in the Mexico City Olympics when she began to feel severe stomach pain. Riddled with a sore throat and intestinal trouble, Meyer knew the illness was due to the contaminated water.
Despite losing five pounds the morning of the competition due to sickness, as covered by Excelle Sports, Debbie Meyer incredibly became “the first and only woman to win three gold medals in one Olympic Games in the 200m, 400m and 800m Freestyles.” And if swimming while sick and still winning wasn’t resilient enough, Meyer swam without a swim cap and goggles, which caused her eyes to burn.
Kim Vandenberg, U.S. competitive swimmer and Olympic medalist, said it best when talking about Debbie Meyer and Jane Swagerty-Hill’s Olympic experience that year; it was “filled with overcoming struggle and self-doubt while breaking gender barriers.”
Fun Fact: Meyer went on to start her own swim school that she still runs today. Aside from being the first swimmer to win three individual gold medals, Debbie Meyer won two gold medals in the 1967 Pan American Games and has “held five world records simultaneously, broke 20 world records and 24 American records from 1967 to 1971” as mentioned on her swim school site. She has also been inducted in the International Swimming Hall of Fame, United States Olympic Hall of Fame and the Women’s International Sports Hall of Fame.
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