The majority of college athletes would probably be content with winning one national championship or collecting one All-America honor during their collegiate career.
Catherine Fox won national titles in five individual events and several relays as a member of the Stanford University women's swim team in the 1990s. And she was an All-American in every single event in which she competed. That's seven All-America honors each season – 28 total in her four-year career as a Cardinal swimmer.
Fox also earned Student Athlete of the Year honors three times at Stanford, set two American swimming records, and was voted into Stanford's Athletic Hall of Fame in 2010.
However, none of those awards or incredible accomplishments and honors stand as the highlight of her career. That is reserved for Fox's days of competition as an 18-year-old Kansan.
Fresh off graduating from Bishop Miege High School, Fox qualified for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. She joined some of the fastest swimmers in the country in winning gold medals in two relays. The hardware was nice, but Fox says even those medals aren't what she treasured most about the Olympics.
"Stanford was wonderful; I received my art degree there and had a really memorable career there," she said. "But the most exciting time in my entire swimming career was representing the United States in the Olympics. It was an absolutely wonderful experience. There is nothing like it."
Fox started swimming competitively at age 9, and caught on quickly with the tradition-rich KC Blazers club team in Kansas City. She excelled from early on in the short races and won many a medal while competing for the Blazers all through high school. Then came the Olympic Trials, where she recorded fast enough times to make two relay teams for the Olympics – the 400-meter freestyle and the 400-meter medley.
Those two foursomes went on to win gold in Atlanta, and Fox enrolled at Stanford for what would turn out to be a sensational career. Fox then went on to earn her doctorate in acupuncture and Chinese medicine in San Francisco.
There aren't many staff members still around at Bishop Miege who were working there in the early 1990s, and local folks admit they kind of lost track of Fox after her surge of success in the Olympics and at Stanford. But a photo that hangs on a wall in Bishop Miege reminds anyone walking down the hallway of the school's decorated alum.
Elaine Schmidtberger looks at that photo every day and said she well remembers Catherine Fox, as well as her older brother and sister.
Schmidtberger, who has worked at Miege for nearly 40 years, was the guidance counselor for all three Fox siblings, who all attended Stanford.
"They were all really good students, and those are really good memories," said Schmidtberger, who added that she smiles every time she looks at the photo of Catherine and her Olympic medals.
Fox is currently a doctor of acupuncture at SageGrace Medicine and Holistic Telehealth, U.S.A., in Barbados, an island in the Caribbean. She and her life partner Zach Hall are the parents of two children ages 12 and 7. She has thoughts of returning to Kansas to eventually open an acupuncture clinic in the Kansas City area.
And yes, she still swims, and said she will never forget where it all began.
"I love swimming in the sea. I feel really comfortable here," she said. "Having gained that experience and confidence in swimming from the time I was young has brought me the thrill of feeling absolutely at home in the ocean."
We are grateful to partner with WIN for KC, an organization with the mission to empower the lives of girls and women by advocating and promoting the lifetime value of sports through opportunities for participation and leadership development. WIN for KC and the KSHSAA believe involvement in activities and sports lay the ground work for supporting well-rounded citizens in our communities and beyond. For more on WIN for KC visit: https://www.sportkc.org/win-for-kc