Jill Sterkel
Jill Sterkel became an Olympic champion after receiving her first gold medal in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. From 1980 to 1988, she would participate in several individual and team events, winning an additional gold medal and two bronzes in total. After the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Jill, then aged 27 years old, left the sporting world for good as an athlete.
She would come back to her old college and become the head coach for several seasons. In 2017, she was finally inducted into her college’s sports hall of fame as both an athlete and a head coach. An entirely new swimming event was created, called The Sterkel Classic, to honor the Olympian from the 1970s and 1980s.