By Ed Bartholme for SMU Daily Campus
Monday May 3, 1999

Senior swimmer Martina Moravcova didn't even know what a fast time was when she got to SMU.

Four years later, she holds six school records, five WAC records, one NCAA record, four European short course records and is vying for the world record in the 100-meter individual medley.

"I remember the first time she swam the 200 (meter) back (stroke)," fellow senior swimmer Katie McClelland said. "She did it in an amazingly fast time, got out of the pool, wasn't tired and asked, 'Is that good?' All we could do was stand their with our jaws on the floor in amazement."

Moravcova chose to attend SMU over Tennessee and Villanova. She also called Stanford, but the Cardinal coach told her she would have to walk on without a scholarship.

"It didn't really bother me that Stanford didn't want me," Moravcova said. "Steve (Collins, head women's swim coach) tried no matter what to get me to come here."

Stanford's decision not to take Moravcova came back to haunt the Cardinal, as she passed former Stanford swimmer Jenny Thompson to become the most decorated NCAA woman swimmer in the modern era of NCAA swimming, and the second most over all.

Moravcova has 10 NCAA individual titles and shares four others with teammates. She claimed the NCAA title in the 200 freestyle four years in a row and currently holds the NCAA record in that event. She ended her career as a 25-time All-American.

"When she walks around the pool deck at NCAAs, people move out of her way," McClelland said. "She just has this presence about her."

On the international level, Moravcova won three gold medals (200 free, 100 IM and 200 IM) at the 1999 World Short Course Championships in Hong Kong for Slovakia. She is now ranked in the top five in the world in five events and the top 20 in eight events. Moravcova also represented her native Slovakia in the '92 and '96 Olympic games.

"Even after winning gold medals, she is still down to earth and worries about things like school presentations," McClelland said. "She isn't arrogant; she is just confident."

But academics have never been a problem for Moravcova. She graduated last May after just three years with a degree in management information sciences and a minor in Russian. Moravcova is now working on her master's degree in applied economics and should complete the program next fall.

While confident in the pool and the classroom, she still has a human side. Her freshman year, when getting ready for her first date with the man who is now her fiance, this side of Moravcova came through.

"We (other women on the team) had already seen him down in the hallway of Boaz and knew he was cute, but she was still up in her room trying to get ready," McClelland said. "She was really nervous and worried about what to wear and how the date was going to go. It was our first time seeing her that way. It gave us all a more balanced picture of who she is."

Some of Moravcova's teammates traveled with her to Piestany, Slovakia, Moravcova's hometown, last summer.

"It is weird to walk down the street with her," McClelland said. "People point and whisper, 'Is that her?' She is a celebrity, but it doesn't seem to phase her."

As for the future, Moravcova hopes to keep touching the wall first. She plans to stay in the Dallas area and to train on campus for the European Championships at the end of July, and other international competitions building up to the Olympics. She also recently signed a contract with TYR, a swimsuit company. The contract's payoff is based on her performance and world rankings.

"The contract isn't like those lucrative baseball contracts," Moravcova said. "It will get me through life, living quite good, without working. It will let me focus on my swimming."