Colorado State University Athletics
Popovich to be Inducted into Colorado Sports Hall of Fame
10/15/2019 5:12:00 PM | Women's Swimming & Diving
CSU swimmer is first Paralympian to earn honor
FORT COLLINS, Colo. – For decades, Erin Popovich collected Olympic medals. The past month, she's been fielding congratulatory phone calls.
Tuesday, the former Colorado State swimmer who went on to win 19 Paralympic medals from 2000 through 2008, became the first Paralympian to be voted induction into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame. That honor comes on the heels of her induction into the US Olympic and Paralympic Hall of Fame in September.
"It's been a fun month," Popovich said. "It kinda brings back a lot of great memories, as well as another stamp in the book of a great career I had."
Of Popovich's medals, 14 were gold, half of which came during an astounding performance at the 2004 Athens Games. After winning three golds and three silvers at the Sydney Paralympic Games in 2000, she won gold in all seven of the events she entered in Athens, setting three world records and four Paralympic Games records.
She followed up in 2008 in Beijing, China with four more gold medals. She is currently the assistant director of Paralympic swimming sport operations for the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee.
"I really owe a lot to CSU," Popovich said. "(Former coach) John Mattos and Christopher Woodard were my coaches then, and they gave me a chance to swim with Division I girls, and I think that made the biggest difference in my swimming career in terms of the level of training I was able to do, incorporating strength training and dry land. It really just improved everything about swimming and what I was able to do in a very short time.
"I moved there in 2003, then 2004 was Olympic Trials and Athens. It obviously had a big impact very quickly. Then just around my career in swimming, a lot of time was spent at CSU. It was their coaching, their methodology and the environment they created for their swimmers had a big impact on me and my ability to get up and swim fast."
Woodard, who worked with Popovich, noted the benefits of her time at Colorado State worked both ways. He joked the only thing small about Popovich is her shoe size, because her heart and work ethic were beyond compare.
She worked out with the team and competed in some meets, but never traveled to conference and always supported her teammates while training for her own major competitions. He also found he didn't have to make any major adjustments to training, because she jumped right into workouts.
"I think we can all kind of get in our heads and see our own limitations and think they're too great," Woodard said. "I'm not strong enough, I've had a bad day of workout, there are three kids ahead of me on the depth chart, and having Erin by them, they could look at what Erin dealt with every day, and she came in with a smile, attacked it and started seeing success. They saw it wasn't about the limitations, it was about what can I do with what I have. I think she inspired a lot of kids on the team."
The 2020 Colorado Sports Hall of Fame class will be inducted on April 23 in Denver. Popovich's induction for the USOPC will take place Nov. 1 in Colorado Springs.
Tuesday, the former Colorado State swimmer who went on to win 19 Paralympic medals from 2000 through 2008, became the first Paralympian to be voted induction into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame. That honor comes on the heels of her induction into the US Olympic and Paralympic Hall of Fame in September.
"It's been a fun month," Popovich said. "It kinda brings back a lot of great memories, as well as another stamp in the book of a great career I had."
Of Popovich's medals, 14 were gold, half of which came during an astounding performance at the 2004 Athens Games. After winning three golds and three silvers at the Sydney Paralympic Games in 2000, she won gold in all seven of the events she entered in Athens, setting three world records and four Paralympic Games records.
She followed up in 2008 in Beijing, China with four more gold medals. She is currently the assistant director of Paralympic swimming sport operations for the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee.
"I really owe a lot to CSU," Popovich said. "(Former coach) John Mattos and Christopher Woodard were my coaches then, and they gave me a chance to swim with Division I girls, and I think that made the biggest difference in my swimming career in terms of the level of training I was able to do, incorporating strength training and dry land. It really just improved everything about swimming and what I was able to do in a very short time.
"I moved there in 2003, then 2004 was Olympic Trials and Athens. It obviously had a big impact very quickly. Then just around my career in swimming, a lot of time was spent at CSU. It was their coaching, their methodology and the environment they created for their swimmers had a big impact on me and my ability to get up and swim fast."
Woodard, who worked with Popovich, noted the benefits of her time at Colorado State worked both ways. He joked the only thing small about Popovich is her shoe size, because her heart and work ethic were beyond compare.
She worked out with the team and competed in some meets, but never traveled to conference and always supported her teammates while training for her own major competitions. He also found he didn't have to make any major adjustments to training, because she jumped right into workouts.
"I think we can all kind of get in our heads and see our own limitations and think they're too great," Woodard said. "I'm not strong enough, I've had a bad day of workout, there are three kids ahead of me on the depth chart, and having Erin by them, they could look at what Erin dealt with every day, and she came in with a smile, attacked it and started seeing success. They saw it wasn't about the limitations, it was about what can I do with what I have. I think she inspired a lot of kids on the team."
The 2020 Colorado Sports Hall of Fame class will be inducted on April 23 in Denver. Popovich's induction for the USOPC will take place Nov. 1 in Colorado Springs.
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