Heyns: The Most Important Legacy Built on Character

Swimming and DivingAugust 25, 2015

Heyns: The Most Important Legacy Built on Character

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Penny Heynswon the only NCAA individual title in Nebraska Women’s Swimming and Diving history. In 1996, the same year she finished her final collegiate season, the South Africa native won her country’s first Olympic Gold Medal in 44 years in Atlanta. In that same Olympics, Heyns established herself as the world’s greatest female breaststroker ever, becoming the only woman in Olympic history to win both the 100 and 200-meter breaststroke.

A 15-time All-American and 14-time conference champion at Nebraska, Heyns is a popular professional speaker. The consummate swimming clinician, she delivers motivational speeches in the USA, Canada, Australia, Sri-Lanka, and Dubai, as well as in such neighboring African countries like Zambia, Namibia, Botswana and Swaziland. Heyns also specializes in mental power seminars, corporate training, plus swim clinics for schools and clubs and Olympic series clinics that cater to the mindsets and high performance standards for senior swimmers only.

A triple Olympic medalist with double gold in 1996 and a bronze in Sydney 2000, Heyns has set 14 individual world records during her career...more breaststroke world records than any other swimmer in history, male or female. She’s the only female swimmer in history to hold five of the possible six breaststroke world records at the same time. She’s the only breaststroker, male or female, to hold world records in all three possible distances (50, 100 and 200 meters) and was inducted eight years ago into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Heyns: Camaraderie Meant More Than the Individual Championships

In the shadows of all that Olympic gold and world records is a collegiate career that lit the torch for greater heights and became the foundation of who she is. I asked Heyns what Nebraska highlight sticks out most in her mind and how it compares to her post-graduation harvest. "To be honest, there are so many from a sporting point of view," she said, transitioning quickly into what really moved her. "I would have to say the camaraderie at conference meets and then winning at the NCAA during my final season were fond memories."

Heyns' career after collegiate swimming continued to progress, but it became less team-oriented and more about individual achievements. Whenever elite athletes focus on their own paths as opposed to team success, life is different...good but different...more about you than those who surround you. Experiencing that, Heyns came to some life-changing conclusions.

Character and Treating Others Right is 'The Legacy to Take to the Grave'

Heyns was always taught that it's not athletic achievement, records or medals that really matter. "It's about your character, how you treat others and the impact that you make on them," she said. "That's the legacy to take to the grave. In our family, good sportsmanship was never crying after a race and always shaking the winners' hands. I 've always considered my swimming achievements to merely be a means to a platform that will allow me to make a greater difference to the world around me.

"I've always said that whatever one does in life, you must know why you do it. You need a deeper foundation," Heyns said. "External achievements don't keep you going in the rough times when failure seems all you see. I believe that motivation must come from inside and true success means doing the best that you can with the talent you are blessed with every day and given your circumstances."

How the Nebraska Experience Inspired Heyns to Create a Path for Others

Coming from South Africa during a time when Heyns' native country had just been re-admitted into the international fold meant one thing for a young woman who had learned so much at Nebraska. "I grew up swimming in a time where we knew very little of international swimming and standards," she said. "Our own South African records where pretty much the ceiling to our goals and achievements. I think the most significant thing about going to the United States in general and UNL in particular was the immediate expectations our coaches raised. That was the first time I was informed that my converted meter times amounted to very fast times.

"Whether that was, in fact, accurate, I don't know, but it certainly made me raise the bar and inevitably swim so much faster. Once I realized it was ‘normal’ in the States to swim so fast, it made me mentally strong, and there was always someone faster to race. For me, it became a necessity to the team that I swim faster.I believe that, in the very same way, my achievements subsequently challenged others to believe that anything's possible."

Nebraska was "one of the most memorable experiences I've ever had," Hynes said. "It was the catalyst for my swimming achievements. I always felt the support from the Academic and Athletic departments. I love the way the U.S. collegiate system is structured to pull everything together. Lincoln had a small-town, very personal feel to it. We interacted with so many different disciplines and countries. The support and the hospitality attracts international athletes, but it's the college and the people that make it. I loved the people at Nebraska. Immediately after the Olympics in Atlanta, I returned to Lincoln for a few days. I was overwhelmed by the support of the local people and their genuine celebration of my achievements."

Double Gold Medalist's Advice: Swim Your Own Race One Day at a Time

Even though Heyns cannot fly from South Africa to Lincoln and join fellow members of the inaugural Nebraska Athletics Hall of Fame class, the support and friendships forged during her years on the Husker swimming team "will always remain precious to me, and I want to thank everyone for their faith in my talent," she said.

Nebraska laid valuable groundwork for Heyns' eventual prosperity, so I ask her to share memorable life lessons. "Swim your own race!" she said. "That's a natural swimming metaphor but so applicable to life every day, no matter how successful you may be. Everyone struggles to just focus on their own journey and their own path. We're always distracted by the expectations of others, or what they may be or have, or who the competition may be. Sometimes, that's why we never actually do what we're called to do or be what we're designed for."

Heyns focuses on the details of what she can control and being the best she can be in each moment. "That's the key to success," she said. "Success merely becomes the result or outcome of the excellence in the details. So one moment at a time… one day at a time…one stroke at a time...the excellence is in the details!"

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Hall of Fame Profiles

Charlie Greene: Men’s Track and Field

Jim Hartung: Men’s Gymnastics

Penny Hynes: Women's Swimming and Diving

Steve Jung: Men's Tennis

Joe Kirby: Men's Cross Country

Christine Latham: Soccer

Liz (Mooney) Shaffer: Women's Tennis