University of Minnesota Athletics
Marie Roethlisberger - M Club Hall of Fame
Marie Roethlisberger
Women’s Gymnastics, 1986-90
HOF Class of 1995
Marie Roethlisberger, one of the most decorated female athletes in Minnesota history, was the first Gopher gymnast to win an NCAA championship and the first to win a spot on the U.S. Olympic team.
An injury kept her from competing at those 1984 Olympic Games, but she did compete on the 1985 U.S. World Championship team.
And then, she came to the University of Minnesota, where she won four national titles, seven Big Ten titles and was named Big Ten Gymnast of the Year for 1987, 1988 and 1989.
She accomplished all that despite partial hearing loss resulting from spinal meningitis as a child.
In Roethlisberger’s 1990 senior year, she won the uneven bars title at the NCAA championships. The same year, she became the first Minnesota athlete to be named an NCAA Top Six recipient, one of the sport’s top half-dozen nationally. She also won All-Big Ten Academic honors three straight years, and the Big Ten Medal of Honor for athletic and academic excellence. She won the 1991 Honda Inspiration Award, was named U of M’s Female Athlete of the Decade for the 1980s by the Big Ten Conference, and continued her studies and became a family physician.