Linda Joan Metheny-Mulvihill (born August 12, 1947) is a retired American artistic gymnast. She won seven gold, three silver and one bronze medal at the Pan American Games in 1967 and 1971, and served as the flag bearer for the American team in 1971. She competed at the

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...

1968 Events January–February * January 1968, January – The I'm Backing Britain, I'm Backing Britain campaign starts spontaneously. * January 5 – Prague Spring: Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Cze ...

and

1972 Olympics 1972 Olympics refers to both: *1972 Winter Olympics, which were held in Sapporo, Japan *1972 Summer Olympics The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and officially branded as Munich 1972 (; ), were an ...

with the best individual result of fourth place on the

balance beam The balance beam is a rectangular artistic gymnastics apparatus and an event performed using the apparatus. The apparatus and the event are sometimes simply called "beam". The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring is BB. The bal ...

in 1968, becoming the first American gymnast to qualify to an Olympic event final. Domestically she won at least 18 individual national titles. In 1985 she was inducted into the U.S. Gymnastic Hall of Fame. Metheny started competing in 1962, and between 1964 and 1973 was a member of the national team. After the 1964 Olympics she enrolled at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

as their only female gymnast. After retiring from competition she became a gymnastics coach working together with her husband Dick Mulvihill, and worked as an international referee. She judged at the World Cup in 2000, at the world championships in 1994, 1995, 2002 and 2003, and at the Olympic Games in 1996 and 2000. Together with her husband she has run the National Academy of Artistic Gymnastics in

Eugene, Oregon Eugene ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lane County, Oregon, United States. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie River (Oregon), McKenzie and Willamette River, Willamette rivers, ...

, since 1973.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Metheny, Linda 1947 births Living people American female artistic gymnasts Gymnasts at the 1964 Summer Olympics Gymnasts at the 1968 Summer Olympics Gymnasts at the 1972 Summer Olympics Olympic gymnasts for the United States Gymnasts at the 1967 Pan American Games Gymnasts at the 1971 Pan American Games Medalists at the 1967 Pan American Games Medalists at the 1971 Pan American Games Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States in gymnastics Pan American Games silver medalists for the United States in gymnastics Pan American Games bronze medalists for the United States in gymnastics 20th-century American sportswomen People from Olney, Illinois Sportspeople from Richland County, Illinois