Paige Zemina
Zemina was born in Boynton Beach, Florida. She attended Fort Lauderdale High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where her mother was an English teacher, and she swam for coach Jack Nelson's Fort Lauderdale Flying L's high school swim team. She was a five-time Florida state high school champion—three times in the 100-yard freestyle, and twice in the 200-yard freestyle. She set the national high school record of 1:48.60 seconds in the 200-yard freestyle in 1984. Zemina was also a member of a national record-setting team in the 200-meter freestyle relay (short course) in 1985.She graduated from high school in 1985.
She accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where she swam for coach Randy Reese's Florida Gators swimming and divingteam in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) competition from 1986 to 1989. During her career as a Gator swimmer, Zemina was a five-time NCAA champion, including the 4x200-yard freestyle relay (1986, 1988, 1989), the 4x100-yard freestyle relay (1988), and the 4x50-yard medley relay (1989). She also received twelve All-American honors as a college swimmer.
Zemina competed for United States national teams at international swimming tournaments in Germany (1983), Sweden (1984), Japan (1985), the Soviet Union (1986) and South Korea (1988). At the 1986 Goodwill Games in Moscow, Russia, she won two gold medals as a member of winning U.S. relay team in the 4x100-meter freestyle and the 4x200-meter freestyle, as well as bronze medal in the individual 100-meter freestyle. At the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea, Zemina received a bronze medal as part of the women's 4x100-meter freestyle relay.
