University of North Carolina Athletics
Looking Back... Sue Walsh Found Swimming Success at North Carolina
February 15, 2007 | Swimming & Diving
Feb. 15, 2007
By Jim Sumner
TheACC.com
"Swimming may be the most demanding sport I know," says Sue Walsh. "It takes a huge commitment, physically, socially, psychologically. You swim twice a day, run, lift weights, make sacrifices. It takes time, it takes discipline. If you succeed in the pool, you know you've achieved."
Walsh should know. This week's ACC swimming and diving championships will probably produce a star or two but it's highly unlikely that anyone will shine as brightly as Walsh did a quarter of a century ago at the University of North Carolina.
Sue Walsh grew up in the lake-effects-snow community of Hamburg, New York, on the shores of Lake Erie, not far from Buffalo. She was the youngest of five children and a high-energy child. "I drove my parents nuts," laughs Walsh. "They had to find some way to harness my energy and swimming seemed like a good idea."
Walsh's father Bob was a swimming official, so the family knew its way around a pool. Walsh started swimming competitively when she was eight and ended up training at the Zwicker Athletic Club, about forty-five minutes away. Drive time and practice added up to a four-hour or so commitment, day after day, season after season. "You have to like the people you're with," says Walsh, "because you're with them a lot. The parents sacrifice so much time and energy."
