The accomplishments of Nashville’s Tracy Caulkins Stockwell are as amazing as any you will find in the long history of athletic competition. So, take a deep breath… and GO! Topping the list is the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, where she captured three gold medals! She won five gold and one silver medal in the 1978 World Championships, the only swimmer ever to place first five times in that competition. She set five world records and sixty-three U. S. records, the latter being the most by any American athlete. OK… BREATH!
She won forty-eight individual national swimming titles and twelve individual NCAA events. She was the only swimmer in history to set American records and earn national titles in all four competitive strokes (backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and freestyle). She was the first and only swimmer to set five American records in a single national championship… and she did it twice. BREATH!
She was, in 1978, the youngest recipient ever of the Sullivan Award, given to the top amateur athlete in the United States. She has been inducted into many halls of fame, including the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame and the University of Florida Hall of Fame, and she was honored four times by the Tennessee Sports Writers Hall of Fame as the Amateur Athlete of the Year. WHEW! Few athletes in history so dominated their sport as did the great Tracy Caulkins. Her name will never be forgotten in the annals of swimming and Tennessee sports history.