Background
Hedgepeth was born in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Hedgepeth was born in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Hedgepeth initially attended the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where she competed for coach Randy Reese"s Florida Gators swimming and diving team in 1989-1990.
She reached the Olympic level as a swimmer for the Virginia Association for Competitive Swimming (VACS) under coach Dudley Duncan. Many Virginia Swimming LSC Records remain hers, over two decades later. She received seven All-American honors from her performance at the 1990 National Collegiate Athletic Association championships.
Following her freshman year, she transferred to the University of Texas in Austin, Texas, and finished her National Collegiate Athletic Association career swimming for coach Jill Sterkel"s Texas Longhorns swimming and diving team from 1992 to 1994.
She competed in the 200-meter individual medley at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South of Korea, finishing eighth in the final. Hedgepeth retired from competition swimming after the Atlanta Games, and became a swimming coach with Longhorn Aquatics in Austin.
As of 2011, she was the masters" coach of the Longhorn Aquatics program She was inducted into the University of Texas" Longhorns Hall of Honor in 2007.
In 2010, Hedgepeth was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.
As a Gator swimmer, she won two National Collegiate Athletic Association national championships: the individual 200-meter freestyle, and as a member of the Gators" winning team in the 4×100-meter medley relay. As a Texas Longhorn swimmer, she won three more National Collegiate Athletic Association national championships and received another twenty All-American honors, for a career total of twenty-seven. At the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, Hedgepeth won individual silver medals in the 100-meter backstroke and 200-meter backstroke events, and a gold medal as a member of the winning United States. relay team in the women"s 4×100-meter medley relay event.
