Mary T. Meagher

Olympic medal record
Competitor for  United States
Women's Swimming
Gold	Los Angeles 1984	100 m Butterfly
Gold	Los Angeles 1984	200 m Butterfly
Gold	Los Angeles 1984	4x100 m Medley
Bronze	Seoul 1988	200 m Butterfly

Mary Terstegge Meagher Plant (born October 27, 1964 in Louisville, Kentucky) is a former competitive swimmer from the United States. Meagher, originally from Kentucky, began competing at an early age, setting her first world record in the butterfly at the age of 14 in 1979 at the Pan American Games.

Meagher was expected to compete for medals at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, Russia. However, Meagher, along with the rest of the United States Olympic team, never got her chance due to American-led boycott of the Olympics. However, in 1981 Meagher gave one of the most memorable performances in competitive swimming at the U.S. Swimming National Championships held in Brown Deer, Wisconsin in 1981. At the meet, Meagher set world records in both the 200 meter and 100 meter butterfly, the two primary distances at which the butterfly is contested in competitive swimming. The times for both records were considered astonishing, especially the record of 57.93 seconds that Meagher set in the 100 m. Both times would stand for nearly two decades - American swimmer Jenny Thompson broke the record in the 100 m in 1999 while Susie O'Neill of Australia set the record in the 200 m a year later. Some have argued that Meagher's records in the butterfly were among the most impressive records ever set in sport, let alone swimming, ranking among such noteworthy records as Bob Beamon's long jump world record in 1968. This led to her being named Female World Swimmer of the Year by Swimming World magazine, which she again won in 1985. She swam collegiately for UC Berkeley, graduating in 1987 with a BA in Social Sciences. [1]

At the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California Meagher won gold medals in both the 100 m and 200 m butterfly races, along with another gold by swimming the butterfly leg of the women's medley relay. Returning to compete at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, Meagher won a bronze medal in the 200 m butterfly. By the time she left competitive swimming, Meagher had won 24 US national swimming titles.

Meagher married former speed skater Mike Plant; they now live in Peachtree City, Georgia with their two children Maddie and Drew. Meagher is also the sister of former Kentucky Republican Representative Anne Northup. There is a swimming complex in Louisville named for Meagher, as well as a street in Elizabethtown, Kentucky.

See also

• List of famous Louisvillians

External links

• CNNSI.com's 100 Greatest Women Athletes

Records
Preceded by Andrea Pollack	Women's 100 metre butterfly world record holder (long course) April 11, 1980 – August 23, 1999	Succeeded by Jenny Thompson
Preceded by Andrea Pollack	Women's 200 metre butterfly world record holder (long course) July 7, 1979 – May 17, 2000	Succeeded by Susie O'Neill
Awards
Preceded by Petra Schneider	World Swimmer of the Year 1981	Succeeded by Petra Schneider
Preceded by Kristin Otto	World Swimmer of the Year 1985	Succeeded by Kristin Otto
Preceded by Tracy Caulkins	World American Swimmer of the Year 1985	Succeeded by Betsy Mitchell
Preceded by Lisa L. Ice Jon L. Louis Cheryl Miller John C. Moffet Dub W. Myers Megan L. Neyer	Todays Top VI Award Class of 1988 Regina K. Cavanaugh Charles D. Cecil Keith J. Jackson Gordon C. Lockbaum Mary T. Meagher David Robinson	Succeeded by Dylann Duncan Suzanne T. McConnell Betsy Mitchell Anthony P. Phillips Thomas K. Schlesinger Mark M. Stepnoski

Donate to Wikimedia