Swimming to the Top

Megan Ackerman had already made a name for herself in the pool before she even set foot on the Seattle University campus in 1999 after graduating from Shoreline’s Shorecrest High School.

Ackerman, who was inducted into the SU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2016, is one of the greatest swimmers in Redhawks history. What makes that even more remarkable is that Ackerman was born legally deaf. Before coming to SU, she had already won five gold medals at the Deaf World Championships in Belgium in 1995 and five golds at the 1997 Deaf Olympics in Copenhagen, including setting the mile record.

The winning continued at Seattle University, despite the challenge of not being able to hear the starting signal for races.

In a 2002 story by the Seattle Times, Ackerman said that it wasn’t a major hardship.

“I typically get late starts because I have to turn my head and look at the flash,” she said. “Without my hearing aids, I can’t hear the beeps. But I don’t think of that as a disadvantage.”

Ackerman excelled in distance events, which helped negate getting off to a slower start than her competitors. She held SU records in both the 1,000 freestyle and the 1,650 freestyle for most of the first decade of the 21st century. Additionally, she helped lead Seattle University to second place at the 2002 NAIA National Championship and was a three-time All American. In fact, she very rarely lost at all when competing for SU.

Ackerman told the Seattle Times that her hearing challenges were actually an advantage in some ways.

“I feel blessed sometimes because I can get more focused without all of the noise going on around me,” she said. “It’s amazing how much quieter a meet is without my hearing aids.”