Debbie Meyer biography
Debbie Meyer, byname of Deborah Elizabeth Meyer, (born Aug. 14, 1952, Haddonfield, N.J., U.S.), American swimmer who was the primary lady to win gold medals in three particular person swimming occasions in a single Olympics.
Meyer, who suffered from bronchial asthma in childhood, grew up close to Sacramento, Calif. She skilled below the U.S. Olympic coach Sherman Chavoor, who required his freestyle swimmers to swim lengthy distances to situation themselves for shorter races. At the 1967 Pan-American Games in Winnipeg, Man., Can., she set world data within the 400- and 800-metre freestyle races. During the trials for the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, she set world freestyle data within the 200-, 400-, and 800-metre races.
Though troubled with a extreme abdomen an infection, the 16-year-old Meyer swam on the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, refusing drugs which may have disqualified her from competing. She received the 400- and 200-metre freestyle races and, absolutely recovered, simply received the 800-metre freestyle. From July 9, 1967, to Aug. 17, 1969, she set 15 world data, together with 5 within the 800-metre freestyle and 4 within the 1,500-metre freestyle. Her remaining world report, the fifth she achieved within the 400-metre freestyle, got here in 1970. Meyer acquired the James E. Sullivan award because the excellent American novice athlete of 1968. In 1977 she was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame, and in 1986 she was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame.