Mitzi Kremer

Mitzi Patricia Kremer (born March 18, 1968), later known by her married name Mitzi Tighe, is an American former competition swimmer for Clemson University who represented the United States at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea where she won a bronze medal in the 4x100 meter freestyle relay. Since 1994, she has worked as a swim coach and Aquatics director in Florida. She coached at her alma mater Titusville High School, where she led the boys team to a conference title in 1994 and founded the Titusville Swim Club in 1995. From 1996-2010, she served as Coach for the Tampa Palms Country Club and later Coach and Aquatics Director for the New Tampa YMCA where she met her husband Mark Tighe, another Team New Tampa swim coach.

Early life and swimming Born on March 18, 1968 to Peter and Ann Kremer, Mitzi Kremer grew up in Titusville, Florida where she swam for Titusville High School, graduating in 1986. While at Titusville, she was trained and managed by the girls' team Coach Dennis Filler. On November 12, 1983, she helped Titusville win the Class 3A District 3 Championship when her 400-yard freestyle relay team placed first with a 3:42.69, breaking the former school record in the event. In December 1983, due to her command of distance freestyle events she was voted Florida Today's Today Swimmer of the Year. On June 23, 1985, demonstrating her command of freestyle events while representing the Cape Coast Swim Club at the Area 6 Long Course Championships at Brevard Community College, Kremer won the 200 freestyle in 2:10.12, the 50 freestyle in 28.7, the 800 freestyle in 9:13.64, the 400 freestyle in 4:30.13, and the 100 freestyle in 1:03.24.

As a senior at Titusville High in the fall of 1985, Kremer captured the Class 3A 200-yard freestyle title clocking a time of 1:50.43, and became a Florida state championship title holder.

Clemson University She attended Clemson University from 1986-1989, where she swam for the Clemson Tigers swimming and diving team in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) competition. She obtained a degree from Clemson in Biological Science. She temporarily left Clemson in her Junior year to begin training for the 1992 Olympics, but returned. While at Clemson, Kremer held Atlantic Coast Conference records in the 1000, 400, 200, and 100 freestyle events and held Clemson records in the 1000, 400, 200, 100, and 50 events. On August 9, 1988, she won the Olympic Trial finals of the 200-meter freestyle in 1:58.97.

Kremer received a bronze medal as a member of the third-place U.S. team, swimming the second leg in the women's 4×100-meter freestyle relay, together with teammates Mary Wayte, Dara Torres and Laura Walker. The American team swam a 3:44.25 in the 4x100 relay, less than a second behind the second place team from the Netherlands, but over three seconds behind the first place East German women's team who took the gold.

At the 1988 Olympics, she also placed 12th in the 100-meter freestyle, and 6th in the 200-meter freestyle.

From 1988-92 during her training, Kremer worked occasionally as a volunteer coaching age group swimmers, which led her to consider coaching as a future career.

Coaching and later life In 1994, in one of her earliest coaching assignments, she led Titusville High School Boys' team to their first conference title since 1991. In Titusville, Kremer would later start the Titusville Swim Team Orcas in 1995 and serve as aquatics director of the Titusville YMCA. The Titusville Swim Team Orcas was taken over by Mitzi's sister Natasha, who also swam for Clemson. At Team New Tampa, Kremer coached a range of students, from beginning swimmers to state all-stars, Junior Olympians, and Olympic trial candidates. She remained the head coach of Team New Tampa YMCA club swim team, in Tampa, Florida, until 2010.

She was in charge of the Aquatics program at the YMCA Aquatic and Family Center in Orlando beginning around 2012, when in 2015 she accepted a position to return to her native Brevard County and become Head swim Coach at Cocoa High School with Co-coach Chris Beadle. While coaching Cocoa High, she coached ROCOA Swim Club in Brevard County and taught for a period at Apollo Elementary School.