Tracy Caulkins

Caulkins was born in Winona, Minnesota, in 1963. She swam for the Westside Victory Swim club and later the Nashville Aquatic Club (NAC) in Nashville, Tennessee, where she was trained by future University of Texas and U.S. Olympic coach Paul Bergen. For her high school education, she attended the all-girls Harpeth Hall School in Nashville. Caulkins's older sister Amy was also a competition swimmer and water polo player. == Olympic desire ==

As a 9-year-old, Caulkins had been training as a swimmer for a little over a year when she watched the 1972 Munich Olympics on television, and decided that she wanted to swim in the Olympics and win a gold medal. In a 1997 interview, Caulkins credited her Olympic dream as her inspiration and motivation. She set a third U.S. record while finishing second behind Canadian swimmer Robin Corsiglia in the 100-yard breaststroke. She won the 200-meter individual medley, the 400-meter individual medley, and the 200-meter butterfly, and was a member of the winning U.S. teams in the 4×100-meter medley relay, and the 4×100-meter freestyle relay. At 15 years old, she was the youngest-ever recipient of the Sullivan Award. She followed her World Championship success with a series of dominating finishes in U.S. competition. At the 1979 U.S. Short-Course Championships in East Los Angeles, California, she set five U.S. records in the 100-yard breaststroke, 500-yard freestyle, the 400-yard individual medley, the 200-yard individual medley, and the 100-yard freestyle on the first leg of the 400-yard relay. She also helped her club team, Nashville Aquatic, win the 400-yard medley relay and place second in the 800-yard freestyle relay. Following her gold-medal performance at the 1978 World Championship, Caulkins was expected to win multiple medals at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, USSR, and qualified to compete in five individual events at the U.S. Olympic Trials, and likely would have been selected as a member of one of the relay teams as well. However, the U.S. Olympic team and 65 other nations boycotted the 1980 Games following the Soviet Union's 1979 invasion of Afghanistan. Caulkins's dream of Olympic gold was deferred by war and politics, so she quietly looked ahead to 1984. As an 18-year-old high school senior, she set four American short-course records at the 1981 U.S. Short-Course Championships in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In each of the four events, she bettered her own previously set American record: the 100-yard breaststroke, 200-yard backstroke, the 200-yard individual medley, and the 400-yard individual medley. Caulkins followed her older sister Amy to the University of Florida, where Amy was already an established member of the Florida Gators swim team. At the 1982 U.S. Short-Course Championships in Gainesville, the 19-year-old again won national championships in the 200-yard backstroke, 400-yard individual medley, the 200-yard individual medley, and the 100-yard breaststroke. With thirty-nine national championships to date, Caulkins surpassed the legendary Johnny Weissmuller's record total of thirty-six. At the 1982 World Championships in Guayaquil, Ecuador, she finished a distant third in both the 200-meter and 400-meter individual medley events against her East German competition, and failed to place in the third event in which she was entered. At the NCAA national championships later that spring, she won four individual titles in the 200- and 400-yard individual medleys, 100-yard breaststroke, and 200-yard butterfly, and was a member of the Gators' winning relay teams in the 4×100-yard and 4×200-yard freestyle events. and finally realized her childhood dream of winning an Olympic gold medal. On July 29, she won her first gold medal in the 400-meter individual medley, beating Australian Suzie Landells by over nine seconds. On August 3, she won her second gold medal in the 200-meter individual medley with an Olympic record time of 2:12.64, besting fellow American Nancy Hogshead by over two and a half seconds. And later that same day, she won her third gold medal by swimming the breaststroke leg as a member of the winning U.S. team in the 400-meter medley relay, together with teammates Theresa Andrews (backstroke), Mary T. Meagher (butterfly), and Nancy Hogshead (freestyle). She also finished fourth in the 100-meter breaststroke, one second behind winner Petra van Staveren. Caulkins ended her competition swimming career having set five world records and sixty-three American records, and having won forty-eight national championship titles. == Life after competition swimming ==

In the aftermath of the 1984 Olympics, the 21-year-old Caulkins decided to forgo her senior year of NCAA eligibility at the University of Florida to focus on completing her degree requirements, and announced her retirement from competition swimming. She graduated from Florida with her bachelor's degree in broadcasting in 1985, and was inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great." Caulkins was inducted into the Florida Sports Hall of Fame in 1983, the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1990, She married Mark Stockwell, an Olympic Swimming Medalist from Australia and a fellow University of Florida alumnus, and has lived in Australia since shortly after graduating from the University of Florida. They live in Queensland, Australia, with their five children. In 2008, she was recognized, under her married name, Tracy Anne Stockwell, "For service to sport as an administrator and proponent of sporting opportunities for women" with the Medal of the Order of Australia by the Australian government. After receiving the medal, the American transplant described herself as "one proud Australian." == World records ==

'''Women's 200-meter butterfly''' '''Women's 200-meter individual medley''' '''Women's 400-meter individual medley''' '''Women's 4×100-meter freestyle relay''' Note: All record times and locations are sourced to USA Swimming's list of world records. == See also ==