She is 47, more than 30 years removed from her finest swimming moment as the leadoff member of the U.S. 400-meter freestyle relay team that won a gold medal in the 1963 Pan American Games in Brazil.
And does Elizabeth McCleary Primrose-Smith still swim?
"When I can, if there's a pool nearby I can fall into before or after work," said Primrose-Smith, whose typical workday as an international sports planning administrator is 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Yesterday, the woman known in her youth as Liz McCleary was inducted into the Maryland Swimming Hall of Fame at a luncheon at the Timonium Holiday Inn.
Her aunt, the late Anna McCleary Marriott, the state's first swimmer to qualify for the Olympics, in 1924, and Tami Paumier, who won the 100-meter breaststroke in the 1979 Pan American Games, also were inducted. The shrine has 16 members, three (( of them McClearys, including Liz's father, John.
Primrose-Smith, who began swimming for Knights of Columbus-Orchards at the age of 6 and went to Roland Park and Stanford, hasn't strayed far from sports.
She has been in sports administration since 1976, with the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee as associate vice president, the 1991 U.S. Olympic Festival in Los Angeles as president and executive director and the World Cup last summer as chief administrative officer. In that job, she managed over 400 staffers and 25,000 volunteers in nine cities when the U.S. was host to 24 soccer-playing countries.
Ever on the move, Primrose-Smith last month joined IBM as director of worldwide Olympic sports operations.
"There's stress in these jobs," Primrose-Smith said. "Opening ceremonies are like Christmas. They're going to happen whether you're ready or not."
Yesterday, Primrose-Smith conjured memories of her swimming youth. She recalled how, on Memorial Day, KCO coach Reds Hucht would fill Orchards Pool with water from a fire hydrant so cold that "we froze to death."
"Reds was another father to me," she said. "He knew when to needle you, when to yell at you and how to make you laugh."
In 1962, proving she was more than a freestyle sprinter, she was the first female finisher in the 4.4-mile Chesapeake Bay swim. In the Pan Ams the following year, she was sixth in the 100 freestyle as well as on the winning relay.
She was nothing if not versatile. After setting a national record in the 200-yard individual medley in 1963, she was second in the U.S. nationals the following year -- in the 100 backstroke.
NOTE: The North Baltimore Aquatic Club will conduct its 21st annual Christmas Invitational Meet today through Sunday at Towson State. Teams from five states will compete.