Jill Ann Sterkel (born May 27, 1961) is an American former competition swimmer, Olympic champion, former world record-holder, and

water polo Water polo is a competitive sport, competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the water polo ball, ball into the oppo ...

player. Sterkel won four medals in three

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

spanning twelve years from 1976 through 1988. She was the women's head coach of the Texas Longhorns swimming and diving team at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

from 1993 to 2006.

Early swimming

Sterkel was born in

Hacienda Heights, California Hacienda Heights () is an unincorporated area#United States, unincorporated bedroom community, suburban community in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the community had a total population of 54,191, up from 54 ...

, where she swam for Glen A. Wilson High School, graduating in 1979. She began swimming with the highly competitive El Monte Aquatics Club around the age of 10 under Coach Don LaMont and continued through her High School Senior year, officially swimming for the Club outside of the High School swimming season. In March, 1979, in her High School Senior year, Sterkel set an American age group record of 49.55 seconds in 100-yard freestyle at the Southern California Invitational Swim Meet. She later set an American age group record in the 100-yard butterfly of 53.76 at the National AAU Short Course Championships at East Los Angeles College in April, 1979. In High School, she typically swam two practices a day totaling around 4 hours, and weight trained three days a week. Her Wilson High School swim team went undefeated through March of her Senior year, with champion swimmer Mary Birdsell as another team member.

University of Texas swimming

Sterkel subsequently attended the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

in Austin, Texas, where she swam under Hall of Fame Coach Richard Quick for the Texas Longhorns swimming and diving team in the

Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) was a college athletics organization in the United States, founded in 1971 to govern women's college competitions in the country and to administer national championships (see AIAW Cham ...

(AIAW) and

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

(NCAA) competition from 1980 to 1983.TexasSports.com, Women's Swimming & Diving
Co-Head Coach Jill Sterkel
. Retrieved October 24, 2012. As a senior in 1983, Sterkel won the NCAA national championships in the 50-yard butterfly (24.26 seconds) and 100-yard butterfly (53.54 seconds). She won back-to-back

Honda Sports Award The Honda Sports Award is an annual award in the United States, given to the best collegiate female athlete in each of twelve sports. There are four nominees for each sport, and the twelve winners of the Honda Sports Award are automatically in t ...

s for Swimming and Diving, recognizing her as the outstanding college female swimmer of 1979–80 and 1980–81. She won sixteen individual national titles with the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) titles and helped lead the University of Texas Women's team to AIAW national titles in both the 1981 and 1982 seasons.

Olympic competition

1976 Olympics

Sterkel represented the United States in three Summer Olympics. As a 15-year-old at the

1976 Summer Olympics The 1976 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Montreal 1976 (), were an international multi-sport event held from July 17 to August 1, 1976, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Montreal ...

, she won a gold medal as a member of the winning U.S. team in the women's 4×100-meter freestyle relay, together with her teammates Kim Peyton, Wendy Boglioli and Shirley Babashoff. After the U.S. women's team had been outshone in nearly every event by their East German rivals, Peyton, Boglioli, Sterkel and Babashoff achieved a moral victory by not only winning the relay gold medal, but also by breaking the East Germans' world record in the event final. Individually, she competed in two other events, finishing seventh in the 100-meter freestyle and not advancing beyond the preliminary heats in the 200-meter freestyle.Sports-Reference.com, Olympic Sports, Athletes
Jill Sterkel
. Retrieved October 24, 2012.

1980 Olympics

Sterkel qualified again for the U.S. national team at the 1980 U.S. Olympic Trials, but because of the American-led boycott of the

1980 Summer Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad () and officially branded as Moscow 1980 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 19 July to 3 August 1980 in Moscow, Soviet Union, in present-day Russ ...

, she was unable to participate at the 1980 games held in Moscow, Russia.

1984 Olympics

At the

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the ...

in Los Angeles, she swam for the gold medal-winning U.S. team in the preliminary heats of the women's 4×100-meter freestyle. Starting at the 1984 games, relay swimmers who swam in the heats, but did not compete in the event finals, were eligible to receive medals.

1988 Olympics

As a 27-year-old at the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and officially branded as Seoul 1988 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. 159 nations were represe ...

in Seoul, South Korea, she again swam for the U.S. team in the preliminary heats of the 4×100-meter freestyle relay, and earned a bronze medal for the team's third-place finish. She also competed individually in the 50-meter freestyle, tying for third and earning a bronze medal. She swam in the World Championships in 1978 in Berlin and in 1982 Guayaquil taking a total of four medals including a gold, the Pan American Games in both Mexico City in 1975 and in Caracas in 1983 taking a total of two golds and a silver, and the Bucharest Universiade in 1981 where she won five gold medals. She later served as the head coach of the Texas Longhorns swimming and diving team at the

from 1993 to 2006 where she coached Whitney Hedgepeth, and Erin Phenix onto Olympic teams. After 2007, Sterkel remained in Austin and worked as an Assistant Athletic Director for the "T-Association", the University of Texas's Athletic Alumni group, and raised a family."Sterkel", ''Waco Tribune Herald'', Waco, Texas, 19 May 2018, pg. 14

Honors

Sterkel was the 2000 Big 12 Conference Coach of the year and was inducted into the Texas Women’s Athletics Hall of Honor. She was also inducted into the Southwest Conference Hall of Fame, and in 2017 the American Swimming Coaches Association (ASCA) Hall of Fame. As a unique honor, in the 1979–80 and the 1980-81 swimming seasons, Terkel received the Broderick Award as the National Swimmer of the Year.

References

Bibliography

* De George, Matthew,
Pooling Talent: Swimming's Greatest Teams
', Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, Maryland (2014). .

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sterkel, Jill 1961 births Living people People from Hacienda Heights, California American female freestyle swimmers American female water polo players World record setters in swimming Swimmers at the 1976 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 1984 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 1988 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1976 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1984 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1988 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the United States in swimming Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in swimming World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming World Aquatics Championships medalists in water polo Swimmers at the 1975 Pan American Games Swimmers at the 1979 Pan American Games Swimmers at the 1983 Pan American Games Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States in swimming Medalists at the 1981 Summer Universiade FISU World University Games gold medalists for the United States Summer World University Games medalists in swimming Texas Longhorns women's swimmers Texas Longhorns swimming coaches Medalists at the 1975 Pan American Games Medalists at the 1979 Pan American Games Medalists at the 1983 Pan American Games Swimmers from Los Angeles 20th-century American sportswomen