Jill Sterkel

Early swimming

Sterkel grew up in Hacienda Heights, California, and finished high school at Glen A. Wilson in 1979. She joined the El Monte Aquatics Club at about age 10, coached by its founder Don LaMont.

During her senior year, she clocked an American age-group best of 49.55 seconds in the 100-yard freestyle at the Southern California Invitational in March 1979. The next month, she posted another age-group record of 53.76 in the 100-yard butterfly at the National AAU Short Course Championships. Her Wilson High swim team, which also featured standout Mary Birdsell, went undefeated that senior season.

University of Texas swimming

Sterkel attended the University of Texas in Austin, swimming for the Texas Longhorns under Hall of Fame Coach Richard Quick from 1980 to 1983. As a senior in 1983, she won NCAA national championships in the 50-yard butterfly (24.26 seconds) and 100-yard butterfly (53.54 seconds). She won back-to-back Honda Sports Awards for Swimming and Diving for 1979–80 and 1980–81. She earned 28 All-American awards and helped lead the team to AIAW national titles in 1981 and 1982.

Olympic competition

Sterkel represented the United States in three Summer Olympics. At age 15 in 1976, she won a gold medal in the women's 4×100-meter freestyle relay with Kim Peyton, Wendy Boglioli, and Shirley Babashoff, breaking the East Germans' world record. She also finished seventh in the 100-meter freestyle and did not advance past preliminaries in the 200-meter freestyle.

She qualified for the 1980 U.S. Olympic team but could not compete due to the American-led boycott. In 1988 in Seoul, she swam in the preliminary heats of the 4×100-meter freestyle relay, earning a bronze medal, and tied for third in the 50-meter freestyle with a time of 25.71 for another bronze. She also won four medals at World Championships, two golds and a silver at Pan American Games, and five gold medals at the 1981 Bucharest Universiade.

Coaching

Sterkel served as head coach of the Texas Longhorns swimming and diving team from 1993 to 2006, coaching Whitney Hedgepeth and Erin Phenix onto Olympic teams. After 2007, she worked as an Assistant Athletic Director for the T-Association at the University of Texas. She received the Broderick Award as National Swimmer of the Year for 1979–80 and 1980–81, and was the 2000 Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year.