216:, where she broke records in freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke, and individual medley. In August of 1979, Sue took two gold medals in the Junior Long Course Swim Championships in California, setting age group records in the 200 and 400 IM. She then moved to Pittsburgh to finish High School classes at Shaler High School, and be closer to the Pitt Aquatic Club, where she trained with Coach Dick Bradshaw, who would also coach her when she later attended U. of Pittsburgh. Gaining national attention in April 1980, she finished fourth in the 400 Individual Medley at the AAU Long Course National meet in Austin, Texas.
225:
She was the only Pitt swimmer to make all
American four years in a row and to swim in the Olympics. Highly accomplished and diverse in her stroke skills, in independent competition she garnered honors three times in the 400 individual medley, twice in the 500 freestyle, twice in the 1650 freestyle, and once in the 200 backstroke, as well as swimming on three championship relay teams. She was a Big East individual champion a total of nine times and a relay champion twice. She sat out most of her Junior year to train for the 1984 Olympics.
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At age 18, was selected for the 1980 Olympic team, due to her performance in the August 1980 Senior Long Course
Championships where she received a seventh in the 400 IM, and more significantly, a third in the 200 IM. Her 1980 selection occurred her first year at U. of Pittsburgh, but due to the U.S.
187:
who swam for the
University of Pittsburgh receiving All America Honors all four years of her college elgibility and setting seven school records. She qualified for the 1980 U.S. Olympic team, but was unable to attend the Moscow Olympics due to the U.S. boycott. This is incorrect. Susan Heon did not
224:
Heon swam for the
University of Pittsburgh under Coaches Dick Bradshaw and his successor Dave Belowich on a full swimming scholarship, from 1981-1985, setting seven school records. At Pitt, she earned All-America honors 11 times, receiving national prominence each season of her collegiate career.
267:
of
California's Mission Viejo Nadadores Swim Club, she won her heat in the preliminaries, but finished fourth with a 4:49.5 in the final event of the women's 400-meter individual medley, about three seconds slower than her time at the Olympic trials. She was just under a second behind the bronze
276:
She was inducted into the
University of Pittsburgh Athletics Hall of Fame in 2019. She also received the 1985 Big East Outstanding Swimmer Award. When the University of Pittsburgh Pool was improved in 2016, Heon-Preston's image was one of the few swimmer placed on a "Legends" wall in the newly
228:
Named most valuable swimmer of the competition, at the Big East
Conference Swimming Championships at Pitt in her Senior year on March 1-2, 1984, she set a record in four events, qualifying her for the NCAA Championships. In the 500-yard freestyle she swam a conference record first place time of
289:
Continuing to swim, in the summer of 2016 she set a
National record in the Masters division for the 10K swim (6.2 miles), and broke the Masters world record for the 800-meter (approximated .5 miles) freestyle by four seconds. As of 2014 her four remaining swimming records at Pitt had all been
243:
She earned her first medal in international competition, a gold, in the women's 400-meter individual medley on August 27, 1982 at the U.S.-Russia Dual meet at the
University of Tennessee in Knoxville. She placed second in the 400 IM at the Tokyo International Swimming Meet.
285:
After
College and swimming competition, Heon worked as an elementary school teacher, teaching mostly fourth grade, and living near the San Francisco Bay Area with husband Jim Preston, an athlete and Ironman triathlete competitor, and their two children.
229:
4:53.27, in the 400-yard IM she placed first with a Conference record time of 4:25.04, in the 1650-yard freestyle she set another Conference record time of 16:31.78, and set a fourth Big East record time in the 200-yard backstroke of 2:06.7.
29:
253:
Boycott by President Jimmy Carter, she was unable to attend the Moscow Olympics. For the 1980 Olympics, her training yardage ranged from 16,000 to 20,000 meters daily, similar to the Olympic training yardage for many men swimmers.
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third place finisher, Petra Zindler, but a full ten seconds behind her American rival Tracy Caulkins who took the gold. Had she been able to match her time at the 1984 Olympic trials, she would have been clearly a medal contender.
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eclipsed but they included the 400 IM, the 500 freestyle, the 1000 freestyle, the last to be broken, and the 1650 freestyle. She was still working as a fourth grade teacher in California at the time.
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400 IM, earning her a spot on the Olympic Team. Her time in the 400-meter IM was 4:46.36 in the trials prior to the 1984 Olympics, earning her a ranking of third in the world in the event.
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Susan was born the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Heon in Summit, New Jersey on May 31, 1962, but grew up in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania, where she attended High School.
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In 1985, she was highly instrumental in leading the U. of Pittsburgh lady panthers to their third consecutive Big East Swimming Conference championship.
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During the summers, she received serious training with Dick Schoulberg of Germantown aquatics, particularly while training for the 1984 Olympics.
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https://www.usaswimming.org/docs/default-source/eventsdocuments/rosters/olympics/1980-olympic-team-roster.pdf?sfvrsn=d0f52132_8
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in Los Angeles, California, placing fourth in the finals of the 400-meter Individual Medley.
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At the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, where she was coached by Hall of Fame Coach
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At the 1984 Olympic trials in Indianapolis, Indiana, she finished second to
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345:"University of Pittsburgh Athletic Hall of Fame, Sue Heon, Biography"
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This biographical article related to a United States swimmer is a
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Mazak, Ken, "Heon Continues to Set Swim World on its Ear",
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make the 1980 Olympic Team. This fact can be seen here:
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179:(born May 31, 1962), later known by her married name
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466:, Scranton, Pennsylvania, 30 September 2000, pg. 25
397:Jordon, Jack, "Sue Heon Relaxed as Olympics Near",
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51:
43:
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530:Mazak, Ken, "Clark's Summit Swimmer Falls Short",
426:Myers, Marty, "Scholarship Led to Olympic Dream",
375:, Scranton, Pennsylvania, 28 December 1980, pg. 11
550:, Scranton, Pennsylvania, 6 November 2016, pg. B2
482:, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 22 July 1984, pg. 494
430:, Scranton, Pennsylvania, 18 January 1998, pg. 46
492:Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen;
417:, Scranton, Pennsylvania, 28 August 1982, pg. 14
462:Yander, Jay, "L.A. Story Almost a Double Dip",
534:, 30 July 1984, Scranton, Pennsylvania, pg. 17
446:, Scranton, Pennsylvania, 5 March 1985, pg. 20
401:, Scranton, Pennsylvania, 22 July 1984, pg. 34
958:
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8:
546:Myer's Marty, "Preston's Place in History",
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413:Mazak, Ken, "Sue Heon Swims to Gold Medal",
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192:She represented the United States at the
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277:renovated U. of Pittsburgh Trees Pool.
999:Olympic swimmers for the United States
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1014:Swimmers at the 1984 Summer Olympics
1009:Pittsburgh Panthers women's swimmers
1004:Sportspeople from Summit, New Jersey
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183:, is an American former competition
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1024:American swimming biography stubs
1019:20th-century American sportswomen
98:5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
925:
920:
502:Olympics at Sports-Reference.com
27:
994:American female medley swimmers
478:"Heon's Many Moves Might Pay",
588:1984 USA Olympic swimming team
1:
371:"Young Newsmaker, Sue Heon",
937:. You can help Knowledge by
214:Abington Heights High School
208:Early swimming and education
16:American swimmer (born 1962)
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239:International competition
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125:
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248:1980, 84 Summer Olympics
220:University of Pittsburgh
152:University of Pittsburgh
106:137 lb (62 kg)
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349:pittsburghpanthers.com
730:
315:"Sue Heon, Biography"
506:Sports Reference LLC
480:The Pittsburgh Press
194:1984 Summer Olympics
39:Personal information
281:Life after swimming
23:
805:Carrie Steinseifer
800:Michele Richardson
732:
444:The Scranton Times
87:Summit, New Jersey
62:National team
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548:The Times Tribune
532:The Times-Tribune
512:on April 17, 2020
464:The Times-Tribune
428:The Times-Tribune
415:The Times-Tribune
373:The Times-Tribune
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143:Pitt Aquatic Club
134:Individual medley
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508:. Archived from
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177:Susan Helen Heon
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47:Susan Helen Heon
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872:Charlie Hodgson
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795:Kim Rhodenbaugh
780:Mary T. Meagher
745:Theresa Andrews
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678:Steve Lundquist
658:Patrick Kennedy
612:Chris Cavanaugh
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835:Sippy Woodhead
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785:Betsy Mitchell
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765:Nancy Hogshead
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750:Tracy Caulkins
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713:Jesse Vassallo
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708:Rich Schroeder
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703:Richard Saeger
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628:Geoff Gaberino
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624:(team captain)
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617:George DiCarlo
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755:Tiffany Cohen
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265:Mark Schubert
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212:Sue swam for
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181:Susan Preston
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163:Dave Belowich
161:Dick Bradshaw
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82:(age 62)
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65:United States
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30:
25:
939:expanding it
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863:(head coach)
810:Jill Sterkel
759:
738:Women's Team
698:Mike O'Brien
668:David Larson
663:Jeff Kostoff
638:Matt Gribble
633:Rowdy Gaines
547:
531:
526:
514:. Retrieved
510:the original
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494:Mallon, Bill
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352:. Retrieved
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322:. Retrieved
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148:College team
80:May 31, 1962
33:Heon in 1984
984:1962 births
897:Randy Reese
887:Skip Kenney
882:Frank Keefe
877:Doug Ingram
861:Don Gambril
856:Ray Bussard
815:Dara Torres
775:Kim Linehan
718:Dave Wilson
683:John Moffet
673:Robin Leamy
643:Bruce Hayes
602:Matt Biondi
354:19 November
324:19 November
978:Categories
825:Mary Wayte
820:Tori Trees
790:Susan Rapp
648:Mike Heath
622:Jeff Float
607:Rick Carey
595:Men's Team
498:"Sue Heon"
294:References
76:1962-05-31
830:Amy White
653:Tom Jager
319:Olympedia
165:(U. Pitt)
760:Sue Heon
516:July 17,
120:Swimming
53:Nickname
21:Sue Heon
844:Coaches
185:swimmer
130:Strokes
272:Honors
203:Career
103:Weight
95:Height
89:, U.S.
158:Coach
116:Sport
111:Sport
57:"Sue"
935:stub
518:2012
356:2021
326:2021
140:Club
70:Born
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74:(
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
