She doesn't remember record-setting races, or split-times, or even when she really got interested in swimming. She doesn't remember the specifics of winning individual Big 10 championships at Michigan, and downplays being named an All-American each year she was in college. She does remember losing races pretty consistently until she was about 13. She remembers never attaining the goals she set for herself. And she wasn't aware she still holds the State of Michigan swimming records in two key events, records she set 20 years ago.

What Gwen DeMaat does have is a good handle on life underscored by a soft-spoken manner and an ability to easily dismiss her own accomplishments.

"I'm the youngest of four," she said recently. "We all swam at one point on the YMCA team. My older sister, Joan, set some state records and stuff in cross-country and track."

When she was about eight, she went to the YMCA for "second-grade swim lessons with my class, and the school instructor noticed I had a good stroke or something," she said in her typical easygoing fashion. That instructor, Muriel Johnson -"everybody calls her Spyke" - worked with DeMaat over the next ten years and helped her develop into an elite freestyle swimmer.

"She understood me and my body, how much training I needed and what I didn't need, and didn't push me to where my shoulders got hurt." Under her tutelage, in 1985 Gwen DeMaat set records in the 200-freestyle (1:49.73) and the 500-freestyle (4:51:09), times that have not been approached by anyone in the Class B-C-D divisions.

"We had a good team (at Grand Rapids Christian High) and we went to nationals." Her power and speed in the pool attracted recruiters from all over the country, and she narrowed her choices to three colleges: U-M, Arizona State and Southern Illinois. The combination of being close to family, a Christian connection with U-M coach Jim Richardson, and feeling comfortable made the decision easy.

But the regimen was different in Ann Arbor. "We started training a ridiculous amount," she said. "They have different training methods now, which is good. I was really a short distance swimmer, but because I had so much endurance, they started training me for distance events. I was swimming 19, 20 miles a day quite a bit. That led to some shoulder injuries. But I thought that just kind of came with the territory. What did I know? I was only, like, 17. Looking back, I probably shouldn't have trained as hard."

It didn't stop her from continuing to win races and set records. She still has the fourth-fastest time ever in the Big 10 in the 500-freestyle (4:44.43). She won the 1650-freestyle in both 1987 and 1989, improving her speed by nine seconds in two years. "Oh, that's not really that much. No, not really." Though largely a freestyle swimmer, she also won the 400-meter Individual Medley in 1989.

She doesn't blame anyone for her shoulder problems, and doesn't think they contributed to her not making an Olympic team. "I liked competing," she said. "I'm not as competitive now, but then I was. But maybe I should've been more. You know how winners have a certain mindset, how they won't take anything less than absolute victory? It's just that certain mindset, and I didn't have that very last edge."

Though she said "I never really achieved my time goals, I always thought I should be faster," she thinks she would be if she could compete today with newer training techniques. "At least I hope so," she laughed.

Today, Gwen DeMaat DeVries and her husband, David, are busy with their three kids. "Jack is five, and Ben will be three in October, and Mark is one," she said while the kids played.

She seems genuinely humbled about her induction into the Grand Rapids Sports Hall of Fame. "It's quite an honor. I keep thinking, 'Oh, dear, what just happened?' But the people who got the ball rolling, I guess a lot of people thought I deserved it. But it never even occurred to me that this could happen." When it's suggested that in a few years, her sons will go to Griffins games and see their Mom's Hall of Fame plaque, she laughed and said, "That is gonna be so weird."