Hall of Fame induction tonight

Mary T. Meagher won three Olympic gold medals in swimming and stood on top of the world when she was on the medal podium at the Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Games.

Some called it redemption. Meagher, meanwhile, felt something else.

"It was certainly a relief to win gold in '84," Meagher said. "To hear the national anthem and receive the gold medal was amazing. It's a moment I had been waiting for."

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Meagher, who became known as "Madame Butterfly" for her mastery of the butterfly events, was one of hundreds of Americans who could not compete in the Moscow 1980 Olympic Games because of President Jimmy Carter's decision that the United States boycott. At the time, the Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan and Carter's move was a way to protest that siege. But it was the athletes like Meagher who wound up losing a lot.  

Meagher came back stronger than ever, however, in 1981, setting two butterfly records that each stood for nearly two decades. She later earned silver and bronze medals at the Seoul 1988 Olympic Games.

For her many Olympic achievements, Meagher tonight will be inducted into the United States Olympic Hall of Fame. The star-studded inductee class also includes Michael Johnson (track and field), Picabo Street (skiing), Teresa Edwards (women's basketball), Willye White (athletics), Sarah Will (Paralympics), Abie Grossfeld (coach, gymnastics), Andrea Mead-Lawrence (veteran) and Peter Ueberroth (special contributor).

The class also features the 1992 men's basketball team, commonly known as the "Dream Team.'' That team, with Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and many other NBA superstars, was the first professional U.S. team to play in the Olympic Games and it dominated its competition and was also showered with attention and autograph seekers from fans --- and opponents --- during the Games in Barcelona. 

The induction celebration appropriately will be held in Chicago --- the city which is just 50 days from finding out if it will play host to the 2016 Olympic Games.  The IOC is scheduled to vote on the 2016 city on October 2 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

"This is a huge honor and very flattering," said Meagher, 45, who now lives in Peachtree City, Ga., with her husband Mike Plant, a former speed skater, and their two children. "For a swimmer, the Olympics is the highest level you can reach. I'm just honored."

After the 1980 boycott, Meagher thought she was missing out on the fun things in life. She had all but abandoned the other sports she played growing up in Kentucky. But more importantly for a 16-year-old girl, she thought her social life had gone down the tubes.

So in 1981 --- two years after she set her first world record and one year removed from the boycott --- she backed off from swimming for a while. She needed a break from the grind of practicing in the pool twice a day.

Meagher was a threat to medal in 1980, but the boycott announcement came before swimmers even went to Olympic Trials. As she looks back now, she thinks taking a little time off at that point was just what she needed.

"When I decided to get back into it again, it all came together and it was fun again," said Meagher. "I went to nationals that year feeling really good but didn't know how good I would really do."

What she did simply was amazing. When you consider how fast world records were falling earlier this summer at the FINA World Championships in Rome, Meagher's achievements are all the more impressive. She set the world record in both the 100-meter and 200-meter butterfly --- records which stood for 18 and 19 years, respectively. She became known as "Madame Butterfly,'' a nickname that's survived the test of time but one that she said she had only heard in passing during her career.

On setting her long-standing records at age 16 at U.S. Nationals in 1981, Meagher said it was a culmination of hard training for the 1980 Olympics and taking time off.

"I didn't get into the sport or keep swimming at that time to break world records," Meagher said. "I didn't know if I would go strong or die out in the last 50 meters. My training from 1980 carried over, and I had endurance, speed and a great mental attitude. And I was having lot of fun."

She said her time of 57.93 seconds in the 100 butterfly at that time was a surprise. "I didn't even set that as a goal," she said. On her 200 time of 2:05.96, she thought it was something she would break sooner or later.

"I felt for sure I would break it in 1984," she said. "No matter what I did, I couldn't put it all together or figure out what formula it took to set it. It didn't seem like a record that would be hard to break. When I retired, I figured some young swimmer would come along and do it sooner or later."

It happened later-19 later, in fact, when Susie O'Neill of Australia did it in 2000. American Jenny Thompson broke the record in the 100 1999.

At 14, Meagher's first world record didn't even occur to her until about 15 minutes after she had broken it. In Puerto Rico for the 1979 Pan American Games, she just wanted a good race.

"When I dove in for that swim in Puerto Rico I set out to do my best time," Meagher said. "I was still growing and getting faster. And to be honest, I didn't know it was a world record. The broadcast was in Spanish and I couldn't understand what they were saying. About 15-20 minutes later a teammate said, 'What's it feel like to be a world record holder?'

"I just squinted my eyes and smiled, and it never really sunk in."

Meagher, the 10th of 11 children-with only one brother-said she began competitive swimming when she was 4 in her hometown of Louisville, Ky. Her mother would take all the children to the pool for practice while she got her errands done. Mary and a few of her siblings made a life of the sport. Her brother, Jim, swam at Notre Dame. Her sister Peggy swam at the University of Texas.

But not all the Meagher bunch turned out to be athletes. Anne Meagher was a girl scout who liked to debate and loved politics. She eventually became Anne Northup, the former Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives from Kentucky who was recently nominated by President Barack Obama to serve as the commissioner of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Mary T. Meagher's career was chock full of achievements and accolades. She enrolled at California-Berkeley in the fall of 1982 and won six NCAA championships. She took off during the 1983-84 season at Cal to concentrate on the 1984 Games, but returned and received a B.A. in Social Sciences. She was a 24-time national champion in her career and also medaled at both the Pan American and Pan Pacific Games. She was named Swimming World magazine's Female World Swimmer of the Year in 1981 and 1985. She won the Honda Sports Award for Swimming in 1985 and 1987. Also in 1987, she was the winner of the Honda Broderick Cup, given annually to the nation's top female collegiate athlete.

Meagher retired from swimming and worked for the U.S. Olympic Committee, where she eventually met her husband, Mike Plant, who also worked on the committee. The two married and now have two children-Madeline and Drew.  

Plant, a member of the Lake Placid 1980 Winter Olympic team as a speedskater, will serve as the USOC's chef de mission at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. In that role, Plant will be the senior representative on behalf of the United States delegation with the Vancouver Organizing Committee, the IOC and other national Olympic committees.  

Although Plant remains very involved with the Olympic movement, Mary T. Meagher has been much more involved with family life than sports these days. She doesn't coach swimming and barely follows it. She said she'll watch it some during the Olympic Games, but mostly her life is dedicated to being a stay-at-home mom. She helped start her daughter's Girl Scouts troop. She also helped organize a neighborhood swim league but has since passed the responsibilities of managing it to someone else.

She's the president of her Homeowner's Association. She is taking life easy, and doesn't think a whole lot about her past glory.

"I'm so full of life and enjoy so much of what I do now," she said. "Those were good years, but my best years are definitely now."

Story courtesy Red Line Editorial, Inc. Scott McDonald is a freelance contributor for teamusa.org. This story was not subject to the approval of the United States Olympic Committee or any National Governing Bodies.