The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Sterkel inducted into U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Hall of Fame
06.25.2022 | Women's Swimming and Diving
Longhorn Legend Jill Sterkel was formally inducted on June 24 at the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Longhorn Legend Jill Sterkel was inducted into the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Hall of Fame, Class of 2022, as part of the 1976 Women's 4x100-meter Freestyle Relay Swimming Team on Friday at the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum.
The Class of 2022 is made up of eight individuals, two teams, two legends, one coach and one special contributor.
At 15, Sterkel and teammates Kim Peyton, Wendy Bogliolo and Shirley Babashoff won gold in the women's 4x100-meter freestyle relay at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. En route to breaking the world record by almost four seconds, the women's team defeated a team of what was later revealed to be state-sponsored, medically enhanced athletes from East Germany, in the final event on the swimming program.
In those same Olympics, Sterkel placed seventh in the 100-meter freestyle and raced in the preliminary heats of the 200-meter freestyle.
Sterkel went on to become the first woman selected to four U.S. Olympic swim teams (1976, '80, '84 and '88) and was elected team captain three times – 1980, 1984 and 1988. During her Olympic career, she won two gold medals and two bronze medals in the freestyle and the relays.
A 2000 inductee in to the Texas Athletics Hall of Honor, Sterkel competed for the Longhorns from 1979-83, anchoring Texas' Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) 1981 and 1982 national championships teams, earning 27 All-American honors and winning 16 individual championships. She was a two-time recipient of the Honda Award as National Female Swimmer of the Year (1979-80 and 1980-81) and earned the 1980-81 Honda-Broderick Cup as the National Female Athlete of the Year.
Following her historic swimming career at The University of Texas, the Hacienda Heights, Calif. native served as an assistant swimming & diving coach at UT from 1986-91 before guiding the Longhorns to further success as the head coach for 14 seasons (1992-2006). Sterkel led the Longhorns to eight-straight Big 12 titles (1999-2006) and was named the Big 12 Swimming Coach of the Year six times on her way to coaching two swimmers (Whitney Hedgepath and Erin Phenix) to Olympic team berths.
The U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Class of 2022 also includes Natalie Coughlin (swimming), Muffy Davis (Para alpine skiing and Para-cycling), Mia Hamm (soccer), David Kiley (Para alpine skiing, Para track and field, and wheelchair basketball), Michelle Kwan (figure skating), Michael Phelps (swimming), Lindsey Vonn (alpine skiing), Trischa Zorn-Hudson (Para swimming), the 2002 Paralympic Sled Hockey Team, Gretchen Fraser (legend: alpine skiing), Roger Kingdom (legend: track and field), Pat Summitt (coach: basketball) and Billie Jean King (special contributor).
The class of 2022 has represented the United States as athletes at a combined 27 Olympic and Paralympic Games, tallying 129 medals, including 86 golds.
National Governing Bodies, alumni, current athletes and additional members of the Olympic and Paralympic community were invited to submit nominations. From there, a nominating committee comprised of individuals from the Olympic and Paralympic movements narrowed it down to a set of finalists. The class of 2022 was determined by a voting process that includes Olympians and Paralympians, members of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic family, and an online vote open to fans. The U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Hall of Fame was one of the first national sports halls of fame to include fan voting as part of its selection process, and this year, more than 432,000 votes were cast across all platforms.