Debbie Meyer — American Athlete born on August 14, 1952,

Deborah Elizabeth Meyer, also known by her married name Deborah Weber, is an American former competition swimmer, a three-time Olympic champion, and a former world record-holder in four events. Meyer won the 200-, 400-, and 800-meter freestyle swimming races in the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. While she was still a 16-year-old student at Rio Americano High School in Sacramento, California, she became the first swimmer to win three individual gold medals in one Olympics. Meyer remains the only woman Olympian to win three individual freestyle swimming gold medals in one Olympics. No female swimmer has ever done this in any other combination of distances... (wikipedia)

Believe in yourself, not only in swimming, but in life itself. You always have to have fun. You have to have an open mind. If you're not enjoying it, don't do it. Life's too short.
I hope I give girls an opportunity to realize that they can swim and go to school at the same time. It's not to be given up once they get out of high school. They can continue doing it for the rest of their lives.
I knew what my times were and how my practices were progressing and how close I was to the goals I had set for the year. I swam hard. I always swam hard. If I didn't, I knew I would pay for it either the next day or the next meet.
They didn't have college scholarships for women. Had they done that at the time, I may have stayed on for another two Olympics, but the opportunities were not available to women that they have today.
I knew all these people had the same goals I did, but the one that worked the hardest would come out on top. That's what drove me all the time. But I had fun. I did better every day, and that's what made it fun.