Jenny Kemp
American Olympic gold medalist in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay.
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Jennifer Jo Kemp, born May 28, 1955, in Cincinnati, is an American former swimmer who earned an Olympic gold medal in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay and once held a world record. She trained with the Cincinnati Pepsi Marlins and graduated from Regina High School in Norwood in 1974.
1972 Olympic gold
At the 1972 Olympic trials outside Chicago, Kemp set an American record of 58.63 in the 100-meter freestyle, just 0.13 seconds off the women's world record held by Shane Gould. She qualified for the U.S. team as a 17-year-old high school junior. In Munich, she won a gold medal in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay, swimming the second leg in 58.99 seconds as the team set a world record combined time of 3:55.9.
Kemp reached the semifinals of the individual 100-meter freestyle, finishing ninth with a time of 59.93, a result she found disappointing given her faster trial time. She had initially specialized in backstroke before switching to freestyle in 1971, and won the 100 m AAU title the following year. In March 1974, she took first in the 200-yard individual medley and the 50-yard backstroke at the Midwest Swimming and Diving Championships.
University of Cincinnati
Kemp began attending the University of Cincinnati in the fall of 1974 and swam for the team for about two years. At the Ohio College Swimming and Diving Championships in February 1974, she swam the lead-off backstroke leg on the winning 200-yard medley relay team, then won the 200-yard IM and the 50-yard backstroke. In February 1975, she stopped swimming with the university team to train exclusively with the Pepsi Marlins, aiming for an Olympic berth and focusing on the April 1975 AAU Nationals.
She swam in roughly half of the university meets during her freshman year. Kemp also earned a bronze medal in the 100-meter backstroke at the 1975 Mexico City Pan American Games, a performance she felt redeemed her disappointing Olympic swim. She attributed her improvement to greater experience in international competition and college, along with a better understanding of nutrition and mental preparation.
Elite-level swimming retirement
Kemp continued to represent the Cincinnati Marlins sporadically through at least February 1976, when she placed second in the 100-yard backstroke at the Marlins' International Invitational Swim Meet. Her coach at the Marlins by 1976 was 1968 triple Olympic gold medalist Charlie Hickcox.
She retired from high-level swimming around June 1976 after competing with a U.S. team in Germany and did not attend the 1976 Olympic trials. She married John Segers Carey on April 23, 1983. She worked as a secretary for several Cincinnati-area businesses and in 1994 for a Cincinnati swimwear firm.
Career statistics and honours
Medals
- Gold Olympic Games — 1972 Munich 4×100 m freestyle
- Bronze Pan American Games — 1975 Mexico City 100 m backstroke
Tables copied from the source article, totals included as the source gives them: Wikipedia: Jenny Kemp (CC BY-SA 4.0). Wide tables scroll sideways.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Jenny Kemp (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Statistics, medals and awards: the tables of the source article.
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