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Swimming fans may be surprised to find Cristina Teuscher in the Ivy League. Simultaneously one of the most accomplished and promising women swimmers in the United States, Teuscher swam the fastest leg on the gold medal-winning 800-meter freestyle relay at the 1998 Olympic Games in Atlanta and has won numerous other medals, including three gold and one silver at the 1995 Pan-American Championships, a gold and a bronze at the 1995 Pan-Pacific Games, and a silver and a bronze at the World Championships in Rome in 1994. All that — plus winning two NCAA swimming titles at the 1998 championships — as a sophomore.
Yet Teuscher’s story as a dominant swimmer is only at its beginning, and the university at which she prepares for her next competitions, including the 2000 Sydney Olympics, is Columbia. Although she was offered full scholarships by swimming powerhouses like Stanford and Michigan, Teuscher chose Columbia for both personal and athletic reasons. She grew up in New Rochelle, N.Y., and wanted to stay close to her parents and older sister, as well as to John Collins, with whom she has trained since the age of 12. Moreover, she felt the Ivy League’s perspective on balancing academics and athletics would prepare her to reach the distinct long-term goals she held in both her personal and athletic life.
Diana Caskey, Columbia women’s swimming coach, attests to that balance: “While I do look to produce athletic excellence, I’m really looking to make sure that every athlete on my team has a positive experience academically, athletically, and socially, ... [consistent with] the mission of a university like this: to develop the human being, not just the athlete.”
Teuscher is thriving in this environment, crediting Caskey for helping her stay balanced. And while Caskey had worried about the dynamics of adding such a star to Columbia’s existing team, which has not traditionally been a leader in swimming, she says the mix has worked out well because Teuscher is a down-to-earth, unassuming, warm person.
Since Teuscher’s arrival, seemingly no Ivy League swimming record is safe: she already holds 14 Columbia team records and six records in Ivy League championships, and her NCAA victories in the 500-meter freestyle and the 400-meter individual medley in 1998 made her the first Ivy League woman to win an NCAA swimming or diving title. More importantly, Teuscher has no doubt that she made the right decision.
“I’m very happy with it,” she says. “I love the people I interact with every day at Columbia; I love the swim team … [and] I enjoy going to class. I enjoy meeting professors. I enjoy people clapping on the last day of a class.” She will continue to enjoy being on the other end of the applause as well.
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