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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 31, 1999)
“I’ve got to do better. Every year I want to / get faster and Stronger and I like to train { hard to do it.” „ . _ Merlene Ottey A —in an interview with the Daily Nebraskan on March 11,1982 m The list of accomplishments and accolades Merlene Ottey has I achieved has rarely been matched in the history of women’s track and M field. 1 To truly understand what Ottey meant to the sport, one might need to look beyond the number of races she won, the records she broke and the medals she earned. Ottey made an impact on a university, a Caribbean nation and the world. .-Mid out of 1.233 athletes who have earned a varsity letter at Nebraska, Merlene Ottey was the best, at least in the estimation of the Daily Nebraskan. She won more national titles, garnered more All-Amencan awards and, basically, stunned more competitors than any other woman has ever done at NU. For that. Ottey has been voted the cream of the crop - the top woman athlete of the century - by the DN. In the voting, Ottey received all but one first place vote, which went to No. 2 finisher Penny Hevns. "In our sport." NU Track and Field Coach Gary Pepin said, "there haven't been many like her. Not iust at Nebraska, but anywhere at any This is the first in the Daily Nebraskan Sports Century series, a chronicle of the best athletes, coaches, teams, games and events over the last 100 years at NU. Today, we chronicle the top women athletes of the century.For full bios on all the athletes, check out our new Sports Century section at http:// www.dailyneb.com I LI 1 Iv . “It was thanks to athletics than was able to go to college.95 — Ottey, about Nebraska, in a forum with the y International Amateur Athletic Association / I No one in Nebraska women's sports history has gone on to achieve the level of success Ottev reached in her four seasons at NU ^B (1980-1984). She was a seven-time indoor national champion, and won just as many national titles outdoors. To go along with those titles, Ottey was an All-American 23 times. At one time in 1982, Ottey held nine of the 10 top times in 300-yard dash in the world. ■ The Nebraska track and field media guide lists race times and records that may never be broken by Husker sprinters.One accomplishment has never been eclipsed by anyone in the world: Ottey still holds the indoor 200-meter world record at 21.87 sec onds. She remains the only woman to ever break the 22-second barrier. In college, Ottey lost only one race in her specialty, the 200-meter dash. And it came to the preeminent sprinter of fl^BF our time. flg^F That race was held her junior year at Brigham Young. ^E^F Ottey placed second, behind future Olympic champion, the flHr Please see OTTEY on 9 The 1996 season was Penny Heyns' last and best year swimming for Nebraska. In four years, the South African breaststroker evolved from a disap pointed freshman to Nebraska's best swimmer ever, an NCAA record holder and a two-time Olympic gold medalist. That season alone catapulted her to No. 2 on the Daily Nebraskan Sports Century list. “If I didn't go to Nebraska, I don't think I would have ever achieved what I did,” Heyns said. Three years before Heyns claimed gold in Atlanta, her career wasn’t shining as bright. After a disappointing first year at NU, Heyns said she returned to her hometown of Durban, South Africa, and starting changing her stroke. Swimming Coach Cal Bentz said the stroke adopted by Heyns was pioneered by Michigan breaststroker Mike Barrowman. “Penny perfected that stroke to a much higher degree than Barrowman,” Bentz said. “She was con tinuously working to make her stroke feel the way she wanted it to feel.” As her second year began, Heyns began working with Assistant Coach Jan Bidrman, a man she credit ed with much of her success. With a new stroke and a new coach, Heyns’ career took off. By the time she left Nebraska, Heyns was a 10 time First-team All-American and a five-time Honorable-Mention All-American. She held 14 Big Eight titles, and a U.S. Open and an NCAA record in the 200-meter breaststroke. Heyns was the first Husker swimmer to win a national championship, taking the 100-yard breast stroke in 1996 with a time of 1:00.27. Heyns was also named Big 8 female athlete of the year and Swimming World's world swimmer of the year in 1996. But it was her performance first at the Olympic trials and then at the 1996 Olympics that focused the world’s attention on Heyns. In the preliminary heat of the South African Olympic trials, Heyns set a world record in the 100 meter breaststroke at 1:07.69. Heyns went on to win both the 100 and the 200 meter breaststroke at the Olympic trials. Going into Atlanta, Heyns was favored in the 100-meter breaststroke over Amanda Beard after she broke her own record in the Olympic preliminaries with a time of 1:07.02. But Heyns was ranked behind the United States’ Beard in the 200-meter breaststroke, despite Heyns’ setting a new Olympic record in the preliminaries with a time of 2:26.63. In three days however, Heyns won gold medals in both the 100 and 200 breaststrokes, being the first woman in history to sweep both events. Heyns also was the first South African to win a Please see HEYNS on 9 Ottey bio by Jay Saunders and Sam McKewon / Other bios by Jake Bleed and Jay Saunders / Illustrations by Matt Haney