Meyer, "Debbie" (Deborah E.)
Swimming
b. Aug. 14, 1952, Annapolis, MD
Because she had asthma, Meyer's family moved to California when she was a young teen-ager and she began competitive swimming there in 1965. Within two years, she was one of the best in the world.
Meyer won AAU national titles in the 400- and 1,500-meter freestyle from 1967 through 1970 and she was the 400-meter individual medley champion in 1969. Indoors, she won the 1,650-yd freestyle five years in a row, from 1967 through 1971 and was the 200-yard champion in 1968, the 500-yard champion in 1968, 1970, and 1971, and the 400-yard individual medley winner in 1970.
She set world records in the 400- and 800-meter freestyles at the Pan-American Games in 1967, when she was named woman athlete of the year by TASS, the Soviet news agency. At the 1968 Olympic trials, Meyer set world records of 2:06.7 in the 200-meter, 4:24.5 in the 400-meter, and 9:10.4 in the 800-meter. Although dysentery and the high air of Mexico City slowed her times at the Olympics, she won all three events, becoming the first swimmer to claim three gold medals at a single Olympics.
The winner of the 1968 Sullivan Award as the amateur athlete of the year, Meyer was also voted woman athlete of the year by Associated Press sportswriters in 1969, when she set another world record of 17:19.9 in the 1,500-meter freestyle.
Meyer had hoped to compete in the 1972 Olympics, but recurring bursitis in her left shoulder forced her retirement after the 1971 season.