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Meet the 2022 Hall of Fame Finalists

Team Ballot Bios

Olympic Team

 1996 Olympic Women's Basketball Team  

  

Names of all individuals on team

Teresa Edwards, Ruthie Bolton-Holifield, Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie, Katrina McClain, Dawn Staley  

Jennifer Azzi, Carla McGhee, Katy Steding, Rebecca Lobo, Venus Lacy, Nikki McCray  

Tara VanDerveer (coach)  

 

Olympic Games experience

  •  Olympic Games Atlanta 1996, gold  

   

Comments to support the team's nomination
The 1996 U.S. Olympic Women’s Basketball Team was made of up former and future Olympic and FIBA World Cup gold medalists, WNBA and ABL All-Stars, WNBA MVPs (league and finals), scoring champions and defensive players of the year. The team went 60-0 (52-0 in pre-Olympic competition and 8-0 in the Olympic Games). In the gold medal game vs. Brazil, the team led by as many as 31 points before claiming the gold medal with the 111-87 victory. Led by Lisa Leslie's 29 points, all 12 team members scored, including double figure scoring from Sheryl Swoopes, 16, Ruthie Bolton, 15, and Katrina McClain, 12. In the gold medal game, the U.S. shot a Team USA single-game Olympic record 66.2% from the field, and in Olympic play, the team outscored opponents by an average of 28.5 ppg. The team was recognized as the 1996 U.S. Olympic Team of the Year by the USOPC. 



 

Olympic Team 

1976 women’s 4x100 freestyle relay swimming team 

 

Names of all individuals on team

Kim Peyton, Jill Sterkel, Shirley Babashoff, Wendy Boglioli, Jennifer Hooker (heats)

 

Olympic Games experience 

  • Olympic Games Montreal 1976, gold (4x100 freestyle relay) 

 

Comments to support the individual’s nomination

If the 1980 US Hockey Team was the “Miracle on Ice,” the 1976 US Women’s 4x100 freestyle relay team was the “Miracle in the Water.”  It remains one of the greatest upsets in Olympic history, a David vs. Goliath story of four young American women who defeated a team of what was later revealed to be state-sponsored, medically enhanced athletes from East Germany, in the final event on the swimming program. The U.S. team qualified third, in part thanks to the efforts of Jennifer Hooker’s preliminary swim. America’s lead-off leg, Kim Peyton swam valiantly to keep the Americans close, and the U.S. co-captain Wendy Boglioli outswam her opponent to pull the U.S. to within a second. The youngest member of the team, 15-year old Jill Sterkel, swam the fastest leg of the day.  She pulled the U.S. into the lead on a fabulous flip-turn and handed Shirley Babashoff, a 4/10th second advantage.  The entire arena was on its feet as the American anchor extended her lead and struck the wall, breaking the existing world record by almost 4 full seconds.  The East German women finished .68 seconds back. The story was later featured in a documentary, “The Last Gold,” which showcased the willpower of four young swimmers who prevailed against the unethical practices of another nation’s sporting system engineered to win at all costs.
 

Olympic Team

2010 Olympic Four-Man Bobsled  

  

Names of all individuals on team

Steven Holcomb, Justin Olsen, Steve Mesler, Curt Tomasevicz  

 

Olympic Games experience 

  • Olympic Winter Games Vancouver 2010, gold (four-man bobsled)  

 

Comments to support the team's nomination

The four-man bobsled team of Holcomb, Olsen, Mesler and Tomasevicz returned the U.S. to the top of the winter sports world by winning the coveted four-man Olympic gold medal in 2010, marking the first gold medal in the marquee sliding event in 62 years for the U.S., and the U.S. has not gotten gold since. Prior to Olympic gold, the team won the 2009 world championship gold in four-man bobsled, becoming the first American team to win world championship gold in 50 years. These two feats earned them Team USA Team of the Year honors in 2009 and 2010, the only team to ever win back-to-back Team USA Team of the Year honors until women’s hockey in 2017 and 2018. Known as the “Night Train,” the four individuals competed in several different Olympic Winter Games. With the passing of Holcomb in 2017, the team continues to honor his legacy, and induction into the Hall of Fame would cement his legacy. To this day, Olsen, Mesler and Tomasevicz are directly connected to the Olympic Movement in very meaningful ways across the entire spectrum with one being a coach, another being a high-performance director, and the other being a member of the USOPC board of directors.



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