I Sports
l •
Two UK Grads Capture Olympics Medals;
Two Coaches Lead Others to the Gold
  r= ’  if    I   Q ;.-a. ,.   L l it `'C"" >   ,
. ·»—» - I · .     rrr ‘     7 .
~ E? . ‘ \% ia  r• l
  C G" ‘ d lt l ' E  “'    t ‘ ° ‘      K · j         ,
— 1  n- i   ‘rd»t “  .rrét,a   Q  ag- l q   .
, I   e ‘ ~  · *t   ___, .,..3 ’ " °  * ~‘·‘—‘ I I
_ _ r> tg _    K   ’’a `     Gola' Medalist Nancy Napolslezjohnson ‘97  
` _ tr“» .  ya   ° ‘`V   _,,_   Passion Richardson ‘97 I
, I       Coach Mark Schahert ’71, swimming   I
fh  '     A M ~ Coach Tuhhy Smith, has/eethall    
. rsrrr c  .$ X 2
, Two graduates of the University of Krayzelburg, took home two gold nerve damage in both arms and legs.  
j` Kentucky brought home the gold at the medals in the 100 and 200 meter The condition made it difficult to hold 2
l Olympics in Sydney, Australia. Alum backstroke. Due to significant im- and manipulate a rifle. She rested and
  Mark Schubert coached the USA swim provements in drug testing, he said stopped high-impact exercises and re-
l team to its best finish since 1976 UK the Sydney games were the cleanest covered fully. For two years she has
· head basketball coach Tubby Smith was in memory. Schubert is head coach been symptom-free.
on assignment with the men’s gold of both men’s and women’s swim "Unbelievable," Nancy said after the
medal basketball team. UK assistant ath- teams at the University of Southern round. "I knew I had a medal, but I
letic director Micki King, herself a California. A two-time NCAA coach didn’t know it was going to be gold." ,
former Olympics competitor, was on me of the year, he has been a swim She credits her husband and her coach
staff at the Olympic Village in Sydney. coach in six consecutive summer for encouraging her to adjust her stance .
One of the biggest stories in the Olympic games including a stint as slightly following the early rounds, a l
Olympics was the award of the very first head coach of the women’s U.S. measure she believes helped lead to vic-
USA Olympic gold medal of the new swim team in 1992. tory. I
millennium to Nancy johnson ’97, who The second UK alumna to win a "I got off the line (after the
received a bachelor‘s degree in horticul- medal is Passion Richardson ’97, who prelirninaries). . .they told me what I was
ture from the UK College of Agriculture. anchored the 4X100-meter women’s doing wrong. I was swaying. . .so I got
johnson, competing in her second mile relay team through the prelimi- my head back on straight and shot 10s.’”
Olympic games, pulled a major upset by nary and second rounds. In the fi- johnson, who now lives in Phenix '
becoming the first American to ever win nals, Richardson, a graduate of the City, Ala., finished 56"‘ in the 1996 Olym- _
a gold medal in the air rifle competition, Gatton College of Business and Eco- pics competition in Atlanta. Three years
p scoring 497.7 and defeating one of the nomics, was replaced by multi-medal later, she became the U.S. national cham- I
l favorites, Cho-Hyun Kang of Korea, by winner Marion jones. The team fin- pion. ‘
two-tenths of a point. ished third in the competition with UK shooting coach Hany Mullins,  
4 Another was the perfonnance of the each member, including Richardson, who recruited Nancy Napolski (her ‘
j USA swim team coached by UK College awarded a bronze medal. maiden name) to UK, implies that she is
of Education grad Schubert which domi- A rarity in the Olympics, johnson one of a handful of athletes who have
I nated their events, earning an impres- was joined in the competition by her helped raise the shooting program to the 4
sive 17 medals, seven of which were husband Ken, also a qualifier in air next level. I-Ie says she came to UK be- j
gold. World records were destroyed by rifle. Ken was eliminated in the pre- cause she believed she would see a lot
the U.S. men’s 4x100 medley relay and liminary round. of action immediately and because she
by 400 meter swimmer Tom Dolan. Nancy’s achievement is a tme suc- thought well of the Horticulture Depart- I
Schubert was especially gratified with cess story. In 1991, she was told she ment.
the Olympic games this year. Schubert’s would never shoot again because of Mullins says in addition to athletic
own swimmer, USC’s Lenny
KENTuc1