Katrina Diane Radke Gerry (born December 17, 1970) is a former competitive

swimmer Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...

who represented the United States at the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

in Seoul, South Korea.

Early life and career

Radke was born December 17, 1970. She was raised in Morris, Minnesota. At the age of 13, she and her family moved to

Emmaus, Pennsylvania Emmaus ( ) is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, it had a population of 11,652. Emmaus is located in the Lehigh Valley, the third lar ...

. By the time she was 14, she landed a spot on the U.S. National Swim Team and was its youngest member. Radke won gold medals at the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in 1985 and 1987 as part of the 800-meter (4 × 200 m) Freestyle Relay Team. In 1988, as a member of the U.S. Olympic Swim Team, she finished fifth in the final of the women's 200-meter butterfly event at the Seoul Olympics, recording a time of 2:11.55. During this time, she was also a member of the swim team at her high school, Germantown Academy (GA), in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania.

College years

Upon graduating from Germantown Academy in 1989, she enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, where she broke school records while swimming for their

varsity team In most English-speaking countries, varsity is an abbreviation of the word ''university''. In the United States and Canada, the term is mostly used in relation to sports teams. Varsity in the United Kingdom In the United Kingdom, varsity team ...

. During her time in college, she also continued swimming for Team USA, winning two more gold medals along the way, while becoming a national champion swimmer in the 200-meter butterfly at the 1990 U.S. Long-Course Championships, where she competed alongside such swimmers as Janet Evans and

Summer Sanders Summer Elisabeth Sanders (born October 13, 1972) is an American sports commentator, reporter, television personality, actress, former competition swimmer and Olympic champion from 1992. Early life Sanders was born in Roseville, California, a ...

. Radke also was a co-captain on Team USA. She graduated Berkeley with a Bachelor's degree in International Business and Ethics, and then earned a Master's degree in Marriage and Family Therapy at Southern Connecticut State University.

Health issues

While still in high school, Radke contracted mononucleosis. Despite this, she continued to compete in swim meets even at the highest level. In 1991, she learned that she had

chronic fatigue syndrome Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), also called myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) or ME/CFS, is a complex, debilitating, long-term medical condition. The causes and mechanisms of the disease are not fully understood. Distinguishing core symptoms are ...

, which forced her to sit out the 1992 Olympic trials. Soon, her condition got so bad, that she found herself bedridden and had to use handicapped parking spaces when driving. In 1993, she retired from competitive swimming due to her ongoing bout with CFIDS. After 12 years of battling the disease, she finally felt well enough to attempt a comeback in Olympic swimming. She participated in the 2004 Olympic trials, thus enabling her to re-enter the world rankings after more than a decade of retirement. In 2012, Radke authored and released a book on her life story and struggles with CFIDS, entitled ''Be ''Your'' Best Without the Stress''.

''Survivor''

On August 30, 2017, it was announced that Radke was one of 18 competitors on '' Survivor: Heroes v. Healers v. Hustlers'', the 35th season of the US version of ''

Survivor Survivor(s) may refer to: Actual survivors * *Last survivors of historical events Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Survivors, characters in the 1997 ''KKnD'' video-game series * ''The Survivors'', or the ''New Survivors Found ...

''. She was part of the Levu (Heroes) tribe and was the first person voted out of the game.

Personal life

Radke is married to former

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

and Olympic swim coach Ross Gerry. They reside in Excelsior, Minnesota and have two children.

Later career

Radke works as a

marriage and family therapist Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...

(MFT), and an online professor for Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, California. She and her husband run a motivational coaching and health business in the Twin Cities, called WeCoach4U. In addition, she is a contributing writer to ''Swim Swam'' magazine; and in 2016, she was elected president of the newly-formed Minnesota chapter of the United States Olympians and Paralympians Association.

Bibliography

*''Be Your Best Without the Stress''; Motivational Press, Inc. (2012),

References

External links

*
WeCoach4U
{{DEFAULTSORT:Radke, Trina 1970 births American female butterfly swimmers American female freestyle swimmers American motivational writers Women motivational writers California Golden Bears women's swimmers Germantown Academy alumni Living people Olympic swimmers of the United States People from Morris, Minnesota Southern Connecticut State University alumni Survivor (American TV series) contestants Swimmers at the 1988 Summer Olympics University of California, Berkeley alumni Sportspeople from Lehigh County, Pennsylvania