By Kevin Greer
Lakeside Communications Manager
At the top of Betsy Mitchell’s resume, there are three words: Educator. Leader. Olympian.
While she’s well accomplished at all of them, there is another word that also means a lot to her: Lakesider.
For the first time, Mitchell will be spending the entire summer in Lakeside. The Olympic gold and silver medal-winning swimmer will also leadoff the Chautauqua Lecture Series Week, ‘Women to Revere,’ with a lecture in Orchestra Hall on Monday, July 21 at 10:30 a.m. The lecture will focus on her memoir, More than Medals: Lessons from an Olympian, which was released in May 2024.
“I’m just really happy to be in Lakeside all summer,” Mitchell said. “I’ll be there right after Memorial Day and I’m looking forward to bringing a nice program to the community.”
Longtime Lakesider
Mitchell’s cottage has been part of the family since the early 1900s. It began with her father’s grandmother and has been passed down through four generations. She came to Lakeside every summer, but her visits were abbreviated due to competing in swim meets with her club teams.
“My dad’s family is from Clyde,” Mitchell said. “He grew up spending his whole summers at Lakeside, and my brother did as well. I was doing so much swimming, my Lakeside summer experience was more like the Fourth of July week, and maybe another weekend or two at other times.”
Despite a busy schedule, Mitchell has managed to find time for a weeklong trip to Lakeside her entire adult life. Other than getting some well-deserved rest, she likes to walk the nature trail and play pickleball.
“I’m looking forward to getting involved in the pickleball community,” Mitchell said. “I love to sit at the dock. Donuts at The Patio are the bomb, but I’m trying not to have very many of those.”
Rising Star
Mitchell’s lane to stardom began at age 5. She was a member of YMCA swim teams in Marietta, Ohio, and a 20-minute drive south on Interstate 77 in Parkersburg, West Virginia. She eventually wanted to challenge herself athletically and academically, so she enrolled at Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania.
“My swimming was getting better than my little town could hold, and our school system was failing in the late ’70s,” Mitchell said. “Education was very important to my parents, but to my mother in particular. She thought it was time to expand my horizons. We looked at it and they were able to make it happen, and I was really fortunate to be able to go away.”
Becoming Elite
After a stellar career on her club and high school teams, Mitchell was a highly recruited swimmer and chose the University of North Carolina. During her freshman year, she was invited to the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials and made the team for the 1984 Los Angeles games.
Even though she won junior national meets, made national time standards during high school, and was swimming for a power conference school, she didn’t consider herself elite until she made the Olympic team. It’s something that never crossed her mind.
“I think one of the reasons that I was able to really maximize my physical potential was because I didn’t think about it,” Mitchell said. “I didn’t worry about those things. I just loved doing it, and as long as I was improving, then awesome.”
Mitchell’s first Olympics was a success. She won a silver medal in the women’s 100-meter backstroke and a gold medal by swimming the backstroke leg in the preliminary heats for the winning women’s 4×100-meter medley relay team.
Following the Olympics, Mitchell transferred to the University of Texas, where she won nine NCAA individual titles and led the Longhorns to four straight NCAA team national championships from 1985-88. Mitchell earned her bachelor’s degree in education and Master of Education in sports administration at Texas. She was inducted into the Texas Longhorns Hall of Honor in 2000.
“The swimming that I enjoyed the most was in my college years,” Mitchell said. “At that time, collegiate swimming was such a such a team thing.”
At the 1986 World Championships, Mitchell set the world record in the 200-meter backstroke (2:08.60). The world record stood for five years, while the American record stood for 19 years. Swimming World Magazine named her American Female Swimmer of the Year in 1986.
“I think you set records for them to be broken,” Mitchell said. “I wouldn’t have wanted them to stay on that long, but that’s about other people, not about me.”
In 1988, Mitchell competed at the Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, where she earned a silver medal for swimming the backstroke leg in the women’s 4×100-meter medley relay in the preliminary heats. Individually, she narrowly missed another appearance on the medal podium in the women’s 100-meter backstroke, finishing fourth in the final.
“I felt a tremendous sense of pride at representing my tiny little hometown of Marietta, Ohio, and our country,” Mitchell said. “I felt extremely proud, and I knew at that moment that I’m really insignificant. That’s what I was feeling in that moment. I still can’t hear the national anthem without just sort of getting a tear in my eye, so it was pretty impactful.”
Coach & Educator
Right after graduating from college, Mitchell went back to Mercersburg Academy. She held roles as alumni secretary, swimming and softball coach, adviser, ninth-grade boys’ dorm parent and alumni director. She has served as a member of the Board of Trustees since 1993. For Mitchell, returning to her high school was the best place to start her new career.
“You’re paying it back and paying it forward,” Mitchell said. “My teachers and coaches were such a positive influence on me. I knew I had a job waiting and I didn’t want to just hang on and live forever in the glory days. I wanted to be of purpose.”
Mitchell’s college coaching experience includes volunteer women’s swimming coach at the University of Texas, women’s volunteer rowing coach at Ohio State University and Harvard University, and women’s swimming head coach at Dartmouth College. She was also a member of the 1994 U.S. Rowing world championship team.
Mitchell’s goal was always to be an athletic director. After a couple stints at Ohio high schools, she became the first female athletic director at both Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
“I had an amazing mentor in Donna Lopiano, who was the first Director of Women’s Athletics at Texas when I was there,” Mitchell said. “I just saw her positive, powerful impact on creating opportunity for kids and coaches.”
Summer in Lakeside
Mitchell stepped down from her role at Caltech following the spring 2025 semester. She insists it’s not a retirement, but the International Swimming Hall of Famer is ready for a stress-free summer. The only thing on her radar, other than writing a second book, is spending the Chautauqua season in her Lakeside cottage.
“I’m bringing my bicycle, paddleboard, dog and golf clubs,” Mitchell said. “Summer at Lakeside is next for me. I’m just stepping aside and thinking about what’s next. I’m looking forward to seeing what it’s like to be there for the whole summer.”
