Jennifer Hooker

Last updated
Jennifer Hooker
HookerJenniferOlympian1976.png
Jennifer Hooker around 17, circa 1978
Personal information
Full nameJennifer Leigh Hooker
National teamUnited States
Born (1961-06-06) June 6, 1961 (age 62)
Bloomington, Indiana
Height5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Weight126 lb (57 kg)
SpouseJamie Brinegar
Sport
Sport Swimming
Strokes Freestyle
ClubBloomington Swim Club
Louisville Tarpons
Mission Viejo Nadadores
College team Indiana University
Coach Doc Counsilman
(Bloomington Swim Club)
Mark Schubert
(Mission Viejo Nadadores)

Jennifer Leigh Hooker (born June 6, 1961), also known by her married name Jennifer Brinegar, is an American former competition swimmer who represented the United States at only 15 at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec. She swam for Indiana University where she received a business degree in 1984, and later practiced law after receiving a Juris Doctor degree from Vanderbilt University. After receiving a Master's in Sports Management in 1996 at Indiana University, she worked for their athletic department, becoming an assistant athletic director in 1999. [1]

Contents

Early swimming

Hooker was born in Bloomington, Indiana on June 6, 1961, to Jack Hooker, a Bloomington area construction company executive, and Jeanne Hooker, a kindergarten teacher. [2] She began swimming at 8, though she started more serious competition a few years later with the Bloomington Gatorade Swim Club under Coach Doc Counsilman. By 12, she held two Indiana age group records; a 5:30.7 in the 500-yard freestyle, and a 2:02.5 in the 200-yard freestyle. [2]

Still in her early teenage years, she had received technique tips from Hall of Fame Coach Doc Counsilman of Indiana University and trained at times with the outstanding Indiana men's swimming team from the ages of 12-14. [3] Additional technique tips were provided by Cincinnati Marlins Coach, Olympian Charlie Hickcox, and her Bloomington Swim Club coach Gary Conolly. [4] Later, Jennifer set meet and state records in the 500-yard freestyle of 4:57.7, and the 200-yard freestyle of 1:53.4 at the Midwest Conference Senior Championships in February 1976, at Lakeside Swim Club in Louisville. She set two additional Meet and Kentucky State records at the Midwestern Conference Championships, a 17:03.18 in the 1,650 yard swim and a :53.4 in the 100-yard freestyle. [2]

Training for the Olympics

Seeking more intensive training in preparation for the 1976 Olympic Trials, she took a break from the Bloomington Swim Club and moved to Louisville from Bloomington, attending Louisville's Waggener High School and swam for the Louisville Tarpons swim club under Coach Terry Schlichenmaier. She qualified for the Olympics at the trials in Long Beach, as did her 25-year-old Tarpons teammate Camille Wright, a champion butterfly swimmer. [5]

By July 1976, she was training for the Olympics with the U.S. Olympic team at West Point in New York, averaging two two-hour workouts per day. The Olympic Head Coach for the 1976 Women's team was Jack Nelson who worked closely with Hooker as did the Olympic Women's Assistant Coach Jim Montrella. After the Olympics, she returned to Bloomington, and attended Bloomington South High School. She had worked out with the Bloomington South High School Boys swimming team, but had not found them competitive enough for a swimmer of her ability. [5] [6]

1976 Olympics

At only 15, she competed in the women's 200-meter freestyle, and finished sixth in the final with a time of 2:04.20. [7] She also swam for the gold medal-winning U.S. team in the preliminary heats of the women's 4×100-meter freestyle relay, but did not receive a medal. Under the Olympic swimming rules in effect in 1976, only those relay swimmers who competed in the event final were medal-eligible. [1]

Showing her skills in Mid-August after the Olympics, at the Kentucky State AAU Swim meet at the Plantation Pool in Louisville, she won the 200 freestyle, 100 butterfly, 200 backstroke, and took second place in the 400 individual medley relay team. [6]

Travelling with the U.S. Olympic team, she visited Leningrad, Moscow, and New Zealand and attended meets in East Germany. [8]

Move to Mission Viejo, California

Around 1976, not long after the Olympics, seeking training commensurate with her abilities, in her Sophomore year in High School she moved to Mission Viejo, California, at the advice of her Bloomington Swim Club Coach Doc Counsilman, and trained with the Mission Viejo Nadadores under Hall of Fame Coach Mark Schubert. She attended Mission Viejo High School, and swam with their top-ranked women's swim team, helping them capture the CIF 4-A title in 1977. As a world ranked female swimming competitor, she trained around two and a half hours twice a day swimming as many as 20,000 meters total and did an hour of strength training a few days a week. In 1976, after joining the Nadadores, she captured titles in the 500 and 1650 freestyle events in Canton, Ohio, setting new American records in both events. [8]

In 1977, Hooker was a two-time National Champion and was world ranked in 1977, 1978 and 1979. [9] On July 8, 1979, she won a silver medal in the San Juan, Puerto Rico Pan American games in the 800-meter freestyle with a time of 8:50.71.3, [10] taking a second to Kim Linehan. [11] In 1978, she won a gold at the World Aquatics Championships in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay, though she swam only in the preliminary heats. [1]

At the AAU Long Course Championships on August 4, 1978, she was part of the Mission Viejo Nadadores' team that set a new American record in the Women's 4x200-meter freestyle relay with a time of 8:21.40 at the Woodlands, outside Houston, Texas. [12]

Indiana University

She attended Indiana University, in Bloomington, Indiana, where she began swimming competitively in the fall of 1980, receiving a business degree in 1984. During her swimming career at Indiana, she won seven Big 10 championships, and won national titles in the 500 and 1,650-yard freestyle events. [1]

Hooker served as captain of Indiana's Big Ten Championship team in 1981. Excelling in distance events, she won championships in the Big Ten in the 200, 500 and 1650-yard freestyles in 1980 and 1981 and in the 1650-yard freestyle in 1982. She made All-American in three events in 1980 and 1981, and at the 1980 AIAW National Championships was second and fifth in the 500 and 1650 freestyle. [9]

Professional life

After completing college, Hooker became an auto industry professional, first selling General Motors automobiles in Rantoul, Illinois and later working as an insurance and finance manager in Americus, Georgia. Having married by 1990 to James Brinegar, as Jennifer Brinegar she obtained a degree in law from Vanderbilt University, later practicing law in St. Louis and Rochester, Minnesota. Brinegar was a Cross Country athlete at Yale University, who later did triathlons. Hooker resettled in Bloomington in 1994 to work for the IU Department of Athletics, and in 1996 completed a Masters Degree in sports management. Initially a graduate assistant in the athletic department, she was promoted to assistant athletic director in 1999, and directed the compliance office. [1]

In 2008, she moved her family to Columbus, from Bloomington, Indiana so her son Michael could swim and compete with the Donner Swim Club and Columbus North High School. Her son Kevin also swam with the Donner Club. [3]

Swim coaching

Around 2010 she did some swim coaching primarily for children under 12 as a volunteer assistant for the Donner Swim Club in Columbus and in 2015 was named the Indiana Swimming Developmental Coach of the Year. [13] One of her swimmers was her son Michael. Around 2015, as a Freshman at Indiana's Columbus North High School, Michael won the State title in the 500 freestyle event. Like Jennifer, Michael moved to California and trained with Mark Schubert as a High School upperclassman. [14] Continuing to coach through 2023 at Donner Aquatic Center in Columbus, she was named by American Swimming Coaching Association's as a Top 50 U.S. Age Group Coach in June 2023 for founding and coaching Donner Aquatic's Club Olympia Swim Team. The team was rated 56th nationally and second in Indiana. Club Olympia trains year-round, splitting its time between Donner Aquatic Center in the Summer months and two local Columbus area High Schools with indoor pools in the Winter. [15]

Hooker's son Michael Brinegar became an NCAA All American swimmer for Indiana, competed in the 2020 Olympic games in the 800 and 1500 freestyle, turned professional in 2022, and decided to train for the 2024 Paris Olympics. [16]

Honors

She was inducted into the University of Indiana Athletic Hall of Fame in 1999. She received the Leanne Grotke Award in 2013, given by Indiana University to a living person whose service has made exceptional contributions to the IU women’s athletics program. Jennfier was also a 2011 inductee into the Monroe County Sports Hall of Fame. [9] [17] [18]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Montgomery (swimmer)</span> American swimmer

James Paul Montgomery is an American former competition swimmer, four-time Olympic medalist, and former world record-holder. Montgomery was the first man to break the 50-second barrier (49.99) in the 100-meter freestyle, at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec, where he won three gold medals and one bronze.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Schubert</span> American swim coach

Mark Schubert is an American Hall of Fame swim coach best known as the coach of the USC Trojans from 1992-1996, and of Mission Viejo Nadadores swim club from 1972 to 1985, and 2016 to 2022. He was a long serving Olympic coach (1984-2008) and head swimming coach for the University of Texas women (1989-1992) and University of Southern California (1992-2006), taking his teams to three NCAA National titles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shirley Babashoff</span> American swimmer

Shirley Frances Babashoff is an American former competition swimmer, Olympic champion, and former world record-holder in multiple events. Babashoff set six world records and earned a total of nine Olympic medals in her career. She won a gold medal in the 400-meter freestyle relay in both the 1972 and 1976 Olympics, and she won the 1975 world championship in both the 200-meter and 400-meter freestyle. During her career, she set 37 national records and for some time held all national freestyle records from the 100-meter to 800-meter event.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Counsilman</span>

James Edward "Doc" Counsilman was an Olympic and hall-of-fame swimming coach from the United States. He was the head swimming coach at Indiana University (IU) from 1957 to 1990. He served as head coach for the USA's Olympic swim teams for 1964 and 1976; and was inducted as an Honors Coach into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1976.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl Robie</span> American swimmer

Carl Joseph Robie III was an American competitive swimmer, who swam for the University of Michigan and was first a silver medalist in the 1968 Olympics, and then a gold medalist in the 1972 Olympics. He was a three-time world record-holder in the 200-meter butterfly, continuing to lower his times from 1961-63. After graduating Dickinson Law School around 1970, he practiced civil law in Sarasota, Florida.

Tiffany Lisa Cohen is an American former swimmer who was a double gold medalist at the 1984 Summer Olympics in the 400-meter and 800-meter freestyle.

John "Jonty" Alexander Skinner is a former Hall of Fame South African competition swimmer and world record-holder, who for over forty years served as an American club and college swimming coach primarily at his alma mater, the University of Alabama before retiring as a coach in 2020. He coached the US national team in the mid-1990s, remaining as a Director of Team Performance through 2008.

Leigh Ann Fetter, later known by her married name Leigh Ann Witt, is an American former competition swimmer and accomplished coach who represented the United States at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.

Jack Babashoff Jr. is an American former competition swimmer and a 1976 Olympic silver medal winner in the 100 meter freestyle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sharon Finneran</span> American swimmer (born 1946)

Sharon Evans Finneran, also known by her married name Sharon Rittenhouse, is an American former Hall of Fame competitive swimmer, and was a 1964 Olympic silver medalist in the 400-meter individual medley, having set a world record in the event in 1962. She also set world records in the 200-meter butterfly, and 200-meter breaststroke, making her the first woman to hold world records in three events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patty Caretto</span> American swimmer

Patricia Sarena Caretto, also known by her married name Patricia Brown, is an American former competition swimmer, 1968 Olympic competitor, and 1964 world record-holder in two distance freestyle events. She is a former world record holder in the women's 800-meter and 1,500-meter freestyle, having set world records in those events on eight occasions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jo Harshbarger</span> American swimmer

Jo Ann Harshbarger is an American former competition swimmer and world record-holder. Harshbarger, at only 15, competed in the 800-meter freestyle finals at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, and a year later was a silver medalist in the 800-meter freestyle at the 1973 World Aquatics Championships in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. She set world records in the 800-meter freestyle in 1972 and 1974, and in the 1,500-meter freestyle in 1973.

Jill Ann Sterkel is an American former competition swimmer, Olympic champion, former world record-holder, and water polo player. Sterkel won four medals in three Olympic Games spanning twelve years from 1976 through 1988. She was the women's head coach of the Texas Longhorns swimming and diving team at the University of Texas at Austin from 1993 to 2006.

Tami Lee Bruce is an American former competition swimmer who represented the United States in two freestyle events at the 1988 Summer Olympics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sue Heon</span> American swimmer

Susan Helen Heon, later known by her married name Susan Preston, is an American former competition swimmer 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. She represented the United States at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California, placing fourth in the finals of the 400-meter Individual Medley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Renee Magee</span> American swimmer

Holly Renee Magee, also known by her married name Renee Tucker, was an American former competition swimmer who represented the United States in the 100 meter backstroke at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec. In 1976, in Austin, Texas, she set a National High School Record in the 100-yard backstroke. She would later work as a District Attorney and be elected to serve as a Judge in Houston's 337th District Court from 2013-16.

Jennifer Ann Bartz, also known by her married name Jennifer McGillin, is an American former competition swimmer who took fourth place at the 200 and 400-meter individual medley, for the United States at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. Later, swimming for the University of Miami as one of the first women to receive a collegiate swimming scholarship, she helped lead the team to the AIAW national collegiate swimming championships in 1975, before transferring to swim for Hall of Fame coach George Haines at UCLA her Junior and Senior year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeanne Hallock</span> American swimmer

Jeanne Courtney Hallock, also known by her married name Jeanne Craig, is an American former competition swimmer who was voted to the AAU All America team twice. Serving as the U.S. team Co-Captain, she swam in the preliminary heats of the gold medal winning women's 4×100-meter freestyle relay in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, though she did receive a medal as she did not swim in the finals. She also swam in the preliminaries of the 100-meter freestyle, her signature event, but did not make the finals.

Lary Alan Schulhof is an American former competition swimmer and national, Olympic and world record-holder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Brinegar</span> American open water swimmer

Michael Brinegar is an American swimmer specializing in distance freestyle and open water swimming who swam for Indiana University and competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the 800 and 1500-meter freestyle events.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Olympedia, Jennifer Hooker, Biography". Olympedia. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 Sullivan, Mike, "Jennifer is Hooked on Swimming", The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Kentucky, 9 February 1976, pg. 41
  3. 1 2 "Son", The Republic, Columbus, Indiana, 2 August 2012, pg. 13
  4. ↑ "Coaching Helped Says Jennifer," The Times-Mail, Bedford Indiana, 24 February 1974, pg. 20
  5. 1 2 Larkin, Leah, "Lap after Lap On to the Olympics", The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Kentucky, 4 July 1976
  6. 1 2 Sullivan, Mike, "Oliver-Miller Dead Heat AAU Highlight", The Courier Journal, Louisville, Kentucky, 19 August 1976, pg. 3
  7. ↑ "Olympics Site Closed | Olympics at Sports-Reference.com". www.sports-reference.com. Retrieved 2024-04-12.
  8. 1 2 Hamilton, Tom, "She Moved in the Right Direction", The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, California, 23 June 1978, pg. 47
  9. 1 2 3 "Indiana University Athletic Hall of Fame, Jennifer Hooker Brinegar". honorsandawards.iu.edu. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  10. ↑ "Pan Am Games Results, Swimming", Statesman Journal, Salem, Oregon, 9 July 1979, pg. 26
  11. ↑ "Runners Hope to Duplicate", The Republic, Columbus, Indiana, 9 July 1979, pg. 18.
  12. ↑ "Vasallo Sets a World Record in AAU Swimming", The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, California, 5 August 1978, pg. 47
  13. ↑ "Making Waves", The Republic, Columbus, Indiana, 5 April 2015, pg. 21
  14. ↑ Schultz, Ted, "Training in California", The Republic, Columbus, Indiana, 3 March 2017, pg. B1
  15. ↑ "Club Olympia Competes at Riviera", The Republic, Columbus, Indiana, 2 July 2023, pg. B4
  16. ↑ "Keith, Braden, Michael Brinegar Turns Pro, Will Focus on Olympics". swimswam.com. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  17. ↑ "Madison County Sports Hall of Fame, Jennifer Hooker Brinegar". /www.monroecountyshof.org. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  18. ↑ "IU Awards, Leanne Grotke Award". /honorsandawards.iu.edu. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.