Erin Popovich
Team USA

Erin Popovich

    • 14

      GOLD

    • 5

      SILVER

    • 0

      BRONZE

    Athlete Bio

    Erin Popovich

    Hometown

    Colorado Springs, CO

    Interested in sports at an early age including horse-back riding, soccer and basketball…Moved to Butte, Montana when she was five…Joined swimming team when she was 12…Born with achondroplasia…During childhood wore braces to straighten back and legs…Received Bachelor of Science degree from Colorado State University where she swm as a varsity athlete…Named “Swimmer of the Year with a Disability” by Swimming World Magazine, Individual Sportswomen of the Year by the Women’s Sports Foundation, and was ESPY Award winner for Best Female Athlete with a Disability in 200

    Erin Popovich is a three-time Paralympian and 19-time Paralympic medalist, including 14 gold medals. A native from of Little Rock, Arkansas, Popovich attended Colorado State University where she received her Bachelor of Science degree and competed competitively against able-body athletes on the Rams swim team. Her swimming career took off at her first Paralympic Games, where she won three gold medals and three silver medals, while setting four world records at the Paralympic Games Sydney 2000. She had another breakout performance four years later at the Athens Games, winning seven gold medals in seven races, including three world-records and four Paralympic Games records. A two-time winner of the ESPY Award for Best Female Athlete with a Disability, she was also named the Women’s Sports Foundation’s Sportswoman of the Year in 2005. Upon retirement, she transitioned to the administrative side of Paralympic sport. At the time of her Hall of Fame induction, she serves as the associate director of Paralympic swimming for the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee.
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