Pursuing other dreams
Former Carolina swimmer Sue Walsh still swims three days a week, tries to compete in a meet each year and is an avid viewer of the Olympic games.
It wouldn’t be hard to blame Sue Walsh for watching something else when the summer Olympic games come along every four years. In 1980, the then-Tar Heel swimmer made the U.S. Olympic team that ultimately didn’t compete in Moscow because of America’s boycott of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Four years later, after she won 11 national titles to rank as one of Carolina’s most decorated athletes, Walsh missed qualifying for the team by one-one hundredth of a second. She was devastated, but didn’t let it dictate her life.
“It’s OK to grieve, it’s OK to be disappointed, but it’s not something that should keep you from moving beyond and pursuing other dreams, and that’s what I focused on,” Walsh said.
Walsh went on to become a Certified Public Accountant – a top goal outside of the swimming pool – and raise three children. She returned to Carolina in 1989 to work with the Rams Club, where she currently serves as the Director of Legacy programs. Walsh also still swims three days a week, tries to compete in a meet each year and is an avid viewer of the Olympic games.
“I thoroughly enjoy it,” Walsh said. “People training, preparing, competing, performing, and we all get to watch and enjoy it.”
