Tracey McFarlane

Tracey Danielle McFarlane (born July 20, 1966), later known by her married name Tracey Mirande, is a Canadian-born former competition swimmer who competed for the University of Texas, and represented both Canada and the United States in international championships. At the 1988 Olympic trials, she set an American record in the 100-meter breaststroke that held from 1988-92. After obtaining American citizenship in April, 1988, McFarlane won a silver medal swimming the breaststroke leg in the 4x100 meter medley relay at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. After a brief career as a swim coach in Southern California, she moved to Florida and had a career as a therapist, executive, and facilities manager in physical therapy and rehabilitation clinics from 2007-2025.

Palm Springs After a family move, McFarlane lived in greater Palm Springs, California by 1978, where she attended Palm Springs High School, graduating in 1984. By age 12, she competed for the Palm Beach Piranhas Swim Club under Head Coach Bill Pullis and briefly in 1979-80 for Coach John Schauble.

University of Texas

Tracey attended the University of Texas from 1984-1988, and swam for the Texas Longhorns swimming and diving team in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) competition under Hall of Fame Coach Richard Quick. At Texas, she helped lead the swim team to four Southwest Conference titles, and an impressive four successive National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) team titles. In the years 1985, 1987, and 1988, in her signature event, the 100 breaststroke, she held National Collegiate Athletic Association titles. In both 1987 and 1988, she won the University of Texas Most Valuable Player award.

At the 1989 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Tokyo, she won a silver medal in the 100 m breaststroke, and a bronze medal in the 200 meter breaststroke. Swimming breaststroke, she won a gold medal in the 4x100 Medley relay at the 1991 World Aquatics Championships in Perth, Australia. Applying somewhat late for American citizenship she needed fast processing for her application to attend the trials. Ronald Reagan signed a bill for her citizenship in April, 1988 that bypassed considerable red tape to quickly make her a U.S. citizen. She won a silver medal as a member of the second-place U.S. team in the women's 4×100-meter medley relay; her silver-medal teammates included Beth Barr (backstroke), Janel Jorgensen (butterfly), and Mary Wayte (freestyle). The medley relay team finished with a time of 4:07.90, a full four seconds behind the East German women's relay team that swam a 4:03.74. East Germany was the pre-Games favorite in the event, and when leadoff East German backstroke swimmer Kristin Otto, finished her leg a full 1.5 seconds ahead of the American women's backstroke leadoff swimmer Beth Barr, the American women's chances for a gold quickly faded. Richard Quick, who had coached Tracy at the University of Texas was also the Head U.S. Olympic Women's Swimming team Head Coach in 1988.

In Olympic individual events, McFarlane also competed and made the finals in her signature event, the 100-meter breaststroke, placing sixth with a 1:09.6, which placed her about .77 seconds behind bronze medal contention. East German swimmer Silke Horner took the bronze with a 1:08.83, with Bulgarian swimmers taking both the gold and silver medals. Competing in the Olympic 200-meter breaststroke, McFarlane did not make the finals but finished 14th with a time of 2:33.46.

Continuing to compete after the Olympics, McFarlane held the American record in the 100-meter breaststroke from 1988 to 1992, with a time of 1:09.60.

In 2005, Tracey and Kathleen Bissell co-wrote the book Championship Swimming: How to Swim Like a Pro in 30 Days or Less with a foreword by Hall of Fame Coach Richard Quick, her University of Texas and Olympic coach. The book centered on how to improve swimming technique in thirty days and subsequently improve speed. The book was originally published by McGraw-Hill in July, 2005, and has a paperback version. It is also currently available as an E-book.

Tracey has competed frequently with United States Masters Swimming, and remained active as a swimmer at least through 2018, often placing in the top ten nationally in her age group. She has competed in freestyle, butterfly, breaststroke and relay events, from 1991 through 2018, focusing more on her breaststroke specialties from 2011-2018.

Honors McFarlane was inducted into the University of Texas Athletics Hall of Fame in 2006. In a noteworthy collegiate honor, she was inducted into the Southwest Conference's 1980's All-Decade team.