Sep 29 | Women's Swimming & Diving, Hall of Fame
Three phone calls and a signature took Gitta Jensen from Denmark to SMU.
During her time swimming for the Mustangs, Gitta was a national champion, 14-time conference champion and 26-time All-American. She also competed at the World and European Championships and the 1988 and 1992 Olympics.
Now, she is headed into the SMU Hall of Fame.
"A bit of disbelief, I guess," Gitta said of getting the phone call from SMU athletic director Damon Evans. "And then after that, excitement and joy and pride and all those other things that come along after the first kind of shock."
But Gitta's path to SMU was about more than swimming fast. She needed a place where she could continue to compete at the highest level.
As other interests started surpassing swimming for her peers, Gitta knew she needed an environment where she could train alongside and compete against swimmers at the highest level.
"I knew I was going into a really cool group of swimmers," Gitta said. "I needed a new environment where I had a team that I could work out with the same kind of drive and enthusiasm for the sport. So coming to SMU, where I knew there were a bunch of good swimmers who were serious about their sport, was what I was looking for. And it matched, if not beyond that, what I expected. So that was really neat."
But Gitta found it sight unseen.Â
She never visited SMU before packing two suitcases — one with a comforter and a pillow and the other with whatever clothes she could fit in it — to fly across the ocean to her new home.Â
"I remember going to the airport thinking, 'Two suitcases and I have no idea what this is all about,'" Gitta said. "But if everything turns out really bad, I can get on the plane and go back home. So that was it. It was scary, but really cool, also."
She did take one visit — to Stanford. A pair of swimmers Gitta swam with on the Danish national team lived in California, and one swam for the Cardinal. But on her visit, the Stanford coach informed her there wasn't a full scholarship available, only a partial one.Â
In came another Danish national swimmer.
He had a connection with SMU and coach Steve Collins and put the two in touch. Coach Collins called and introduced himself, the program and the school and told Gitta he would send some information.Â
The second time they talked, Coach Collins said he would send the paperwork. By the third call, the deal was done.
"He called a third time, making sure I got everything. And when I picked up the phone, I said, 'Steve, I've signed.' And he kept talking, and he said, 'What?' I said, 'I've signed the paper, Steve.' He goes, 'You did?' So that's how it was: three phone calls and a signature, and I decided to go."
There were certainly nerves when it came to putting her life in a pair of suitcases and flying to another part of the world. But once Gitta arrived in Dallas, it didn't take long for SMU to feel like home.
"Everything was just totally overwhelming," Gitta said. "And then after four, six weeks, I was settled in, and then it started being really cool. It's like, 'OK, I can just walk 100 feet, and now I'm at the pool. Then I walk another 100 feet, and I'm in class, and then the food is right there,' and I realize how neat it was. It was exactly what I was looking for and beyond."
The results followed.
Of Gitta's 14 conference titles, seven were individual. She won the 200-meter freestyle championship twice, the 200 IM twice and the 100 freestyle all four years at SMU.Â
"The first time is special, and the fourth time is special because it's like closure. You realize, 'OK, I did it all four years,'" Gitta said.
That fourth 100-meter title was especially meaningful because of how Gitta's senior year started.Â
The combination of school and swimming had started to become overwhelming. So Gitta and Coach Collins worked on a different training regimen during the fall. The spring was better for Gitta, and winning the fourth title was confirmation that she could still compete at the highest level.
"That one does stand out," Gitta said of the fourth 100 title. "It's always nice to be able to prove yourself four years in a row and say, you know, I maintained. I started at the top and I ended at the top."
But as meaningful as the individual wins were, the relays were even more special. So it was fitting that Gitta capped her collegiate career by winning a national championship in the 800-meter relay.
Gitta was the anchor for the team that included Sandra Cam, Melissa Card and Berit Puggaard. Card and Gitta were both seniors, while Cam and Puggaard were juniors.
"I loved swimming the relays with the rest of the team," Gitta said. "To share a victory with three other girls that you have worked hard with and cried in your goggles and yelled at the coach together, that's really cool. … We had worked out together for years, and there are still some of them that I'm in contact with today, even though we live worlds apart."
Gitta was one of three SMU swimmers at the 1988 Olympics, when she was just 16 years old. Four years later, Cam, from Belgium, and Puggaard, from Denmark, joined Gitta at the 1992 Olympics. Along with seven other Mustangs, they made it 10 SMU swimmers competing in Barcelona.
"There were quite a few of them," Gitta said. "And there was another Danish girl that joined, I think, my sophomore year, and she also went to the Olympics in '92. So there were quite a few of us."
Gitta is still in the SMU record books, with the sixth-best time in the 200 and eighth in the 100.Â
When Gitta looks back, the numbers are only part of the story.
She remembers the teammates, the coaches and, most of all, the support system.
"Everything was just one big family and the support system," Gitta said. "There was always somebody there to help you. There were advisors, there was the learning center, there were the coaches, there was the team, and it just really is amazing."
Decades later, she is still connected to that place.
And now, she is headed back to SMU — this time as a member of the SMU Hall of Fame.
The inductees will be recognized at the annual Hall of Fame Banquet and Induction Ceremony presented by Westdale Asset Management on Friday, October 16 in Armstrong Fieldhouse on the SMU Campus. For additional information or for tickets to the SMU Athletics Hall of Fame Banquet, click here.
