Mary Alice Bradburne (née Wayte; March 25, 1965) is an American former competition swimmer, two-time Olympic gold medalist, and television sports commentator. During her international swimming career, Wayte won ten medals in major international championships, including four golds.

Early years

Wayte was born and raised on

Mercer Island, Washington Mercer Island is a city in King County, Washington, United States, located on an island of the same name in the southern portion of Lake Washington. Mercer Island is in the Seattle metropolitan area, with Seattle to its west and Bellevue to ...

, where she swam for the Chinook Aquatic Club under Hall of Fame Coach Jack Ridley. As a 16-year-old high school

sophomore In the United States, a sophomore ( or ) is a person in the second year at an educational institution; usually at a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of Post-secondary school, post-secondary educatio ...

, Wayte won three gold medals in the 200-meter freestyle, the 200-meter

backstroke Backstroke or back crawl is one of the four Swimming (sport), swimming styles used in competitive events regulated by FINA, and the only one of these styles swum on the back. This swimming style has the advantage of easy breathing, but the disa ...

and the 800-meter freestyle relay at the National Sport Festival. She won eight Washington state high school swimming titles in five different events while attending Mercer Island High School.Matt Peterson,
Flashback: Mary Wayte Bradburne, Mercer Island, Class of 1983
," ''The Seattle Times'' (October 14, 2003). Retrieved December 9, 2014.

College swimming career

Wayte accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

in Gainesville, Florida, where she swam for coach Randy Reese's Florida Gators swimming and diving team in

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 1983 to 1987.
Florida Swimming & Diving 2014–15 Media Supplement
'', University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, pp. 82, 83, 87, 91, 92, 100 (2014). Retrieved February 18, 2015. As a Gator swimmer, she won two individual NCAA national titles in the 100-yard freestyle and the 400-yard

individual medley Medley swimming is a combination of four different swimming strokes ( freestyle (usually front crawl), backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly) into one race. This race is either swum by one swimmer as individual medley (IM) or by four swimmers as ...

in 1985. Wayte leads Florida to 2nd-place finish
" ''The Gainesville Sun'', p. 6F (March 24, 1985). Retrieved December 9, 2014. She won the High Point Award at the 1985 NCAA championships. With Gator teammates Laureeen Welting, Kathy Treible, Tracy Caulkins, Dara Torres and Paige Zemina, she was a member of the Gators' NCAA championship relay teams in the 400-yard and 800-yard freestyle relays for three consecutive years (1984, 1985, 1986), anchoring five of the six relays. In total, she won eight NCAA championships in those three years. She also won eleven individual

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central United States, South Central and Southeastern United States. Its 16 members in ...

(SEC) championships and was a member of ten SEC championship relay teams. Wayte was the SEC Swimmer of the Year in 1985, and received a total of twenty-six

All-American The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...

honors in her four years as a collegiate swimmer.

International swimming career

From 1981 to 1988, Wayte was a member of the U.S. national swim team, competing in major international championships in Japan (1981, 1985), France (1982), the Netherlands (1982), Venezuela (1983), Monaco (1985), Spain (1986) and South Korea (1988). At the

1983 Pan American Games The 1983 Pan American Games, officially known as the IX Pan American Games () and commonly known as Caracas 1983, were held in Caracas, Venezuela from August 14 to August 29, 1983. The games were the first major international competition to inclu ...

in Caracas, Venezuela, she won a gold medal as a member of the winning U.S. 4×100-meter freestyle relay team, and the silver medal in the 200-meter freestyle event. 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, Wayte won her first Olympic gold medal in the women's 200-meter freestyle event by defeating her American rival and former world record-holder Cynthia Woodhead. Her winning 200-meter time of 1:59.23 was her career best to date, overcoming Woodhead's early lead in the final 50 meters. She earned her second Olympic gold medal by swimming in the preliminary heat for the winning U.S. women's 4×100-meter freestyle relay team.databaseOlympics.com, Athletes
Mary Wayte
. Retrieved December 9, 2014. At the 1985 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, Wayte won an individual silver medal in the 200-meter freestyle, and a gold medal as a member of the winning U.S. 4×200-meter freestyle relay team, which set an American record of 8:06.74. At the 1986 World Aquatics Championships, Wayte won a silver medal as the anchor of the 4×200-meter freestyle relay team with teammates Betsy Mitchell, Mary T. Meagher, and Kim Brown, which set another American record of 8:02.12. She won a second silver medal for swimming in the preliminary heat of the 4×100-meter freestyle relay, and finished fifth in the individual 200-meter freestyle. Two years later, when

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

, South Korea hosted 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 ...

, she swam the freestyle leg for the silver medal-winning U.S. team in the women's 4×100-meter medley relay with teammates Beth Barr (backstroke), Tracey McFarlane (breaststroke), and Janel Jorgensen (butterfly). The U.S. women's medley relay team was fraught with last-minute drama, as several previously selected swimmers dropped out to focus on individual events, or were replaced because they had performed below expectations, only hours before the event final.Jeremy Stafford,
Bradburne relishes Olympic memories
" ''Northern Virginia Daily'' (May 1, 2010). Retrieved December 9, 2014. In the event final, the U.S. medley relay team included women with no history of competing together, no relay exchange practice, and no coach; the East German favorites taunted the Americans before the race. Wayte would later characterize the race as one of her proudest moments. She also captured a bronze medal with the third-place U.S. women's 4×100-meter freestyle relay team that included Mitzi Kremer, Dara Torres and Laura Walker. Individually, she finished fourth in the women's 200-meter freestyle with a time of 1:59.04, faster than her gold medal effort four years earlier in Los Angeles, and was a medal contender in the women's 200-meter individual medley, but was disqualified when the judges ruled she used an illegal butterfly kick on the breaststroke leg of the medley.

Life after swimming

Wayte graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor's degree in telecommunications in 1989. She retired from competition swimming following the 1988 Olympics, and worked as a fund-raiser for the

International Swimming Hall of Fame The International Swimming Hall of Fame and Museum (ISHOF) is a history museum and hall of fame, located at One Hall of Fame Drive, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States, operated by private interests and serving as the central point for the stu ...

. She became a celebrity promoter and endorsed products and services on behalf of

Alamo Rent a Car Alamo Rent a Car is a rental car agency based in Clayton, Missouri, United States. The company has branches across North America, South America, Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia and Oceania. Alamo is owned by Enterprise Holdings, along with ot ...

, the National Spa and Pool Institute, and

Speedo Speedo International Limited is an Australian-British distributor of Swimsuit, swimwear and swim-related accessories based in Nottingham, England. Founded in Sydney, Australia in 1914 by Alexander MacRae, a Scottish emigrant, the company is n ...

.Swim Across America, Olympians
Mary Wayte Bradburne
Retrieved December 9, 2014. She later worked as a television broadcaster for the Sports Channel network, covering NCAA and international swimming competitions and interviewing fans at NBA games. For the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics (, ), officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad (, ) and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994 ...

in Barcelona, Spain, Wayte worked as

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

's women's swimming color commentator, and later covered the NCAA women's swimming championships for

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

. She also served on the U.S. Olympic Committee's athletes advisory council. Wayte was inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great" in 1998, the

in 2000, and the Pacific Northwest Swimming Hall of Fame in 2004. The community swimming pool where she formerly trained in Mercer Island, Washington was renamed "Mary Wayte Pool". Wayte married business executive Jim Bradburne in 1995, and they have two daughters, Grace and Audrey Bradburne. She currently lives in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is the List of municipalities in Washington, most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the List of Unit ...

, and works in corporate communications.Cisco.com,
Cisco Communications Manager Recalls Olympic Memories in L.A.
" The Newsroom (June 25, 2012). Retrieved December 9, 2014. Wayte participates in Swim Across America, a charitable organization that enlists former Olympic swimmers to raise funds for cancer research.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wayte, Mary Living people 1965 births American female freestyle swimmers American female medley swimmers Florida Gators women's swimmers Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in swimming Olympic gold medalists for the United States in swimming Olympic silver medalists for the United States in swimming Sportspeople from Mercer Island, Washington Swimmers from Seattle American sports announcers Swimmers at the 1984 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 1988 Summer Olympics World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming Medalists at the 1984 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1988 Summer Olympics Mercer Island High School alumni Swimmers at the 1983 Pan American Games Medalists at the 1983 Pan American Games Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States in swimming Pan American Games silver medalists for the United States in swimming 20th-century American sportswomen