Robyn Biehler
Four things Robyn Biehler (Jackson, 1974) does not miss about swimming:
1. 4:45 a.m. wake-up calls
2. Homeroom wet hair
3. Ocular milk baths
4. The swimming
Still, given the chance to travel back in time the seven-time PIL swimming champion would happily do it all over again. Which is not to say Biehler wouldn’t change a few things, No. 1 on that list being she’d set the time-travel dial ahead a couple years…
… to when girls finally were given more opportunities to play organized sports and…
… after someone finally figured out goggles would be a useful accessory for water-based athletes and…
… ditto for blow dryers in girls locker rooms.
All this said, however, Biehler now sees Nos. 1 through 3 as relatively minor inconveniences, the small prices she was willing to pay for the joys and thrills of being able to compete in sports, period, let alone one she loved. As for No. 4, more to come.
Slim Pickings for a Sports Lover
The way Biehler sees it, her parents, Bob and Petie, "probably saw swimming as a way to wear me out," she says with a laugh. "I think I was a pretty high-octane kid."
Whatever their motivation, once Biehler dove into the pool at Portland Aquatic Center and started competing in the 8-and-under age group, it was hard to keep her dry.
“I became a chlorine addict,” she says.
Soon, she was carpooling out to Tualatin Hills Swim Club to benefit from the guidance of coach Rod Harmon while making some lifelong friends along the way.
“We all had to be standing in our driveways by a certain time, then someone's mom would pick us up and off to practice we went,” Biehler remembers. "We carpooled to both morning and afternoon workouts. I don't know how the moms did it."
Biehler loved the structure swimming provided and the competition and the clear relationship between the work she put in and the rewards she got back.
“What made me good was I loved it,” she says. “Practices, being coached, competing; I just enjoyed the time I spent doing it. Then when I would see time in the pool equating to success on the blocks at meets, it encouraged me even more.”
Swimming also gave Biehler an outlet for her competitiveness at a time when sports-loving girls like her often had to fit themselves into the few that were available to them. In eighth grade at Markham Elementary, Biehler was able to play volleyball on a team that won a city championship, but the sports pickings were otherwise slim and remained that way through most of her years at Jackson.
It was frustrating for Biehler, who was raised by parents who were former athletes themselves and had encouraged their daughter to play whatever sports she was interested in regardless of whether they were “intended for girls.”
“My dad taught me how to throw a baseball and a football and how to shoot a free throw,” she remembers. “There was no girls-don’t-play-sports thinking. He’d play catch with me as readily as he would my younger brother, Grant.”
Biehler says its likely she would have competed for Jackson in sports other than swimming had they been available -- “I definitely wanted more,” she says -- but those opportunities didn’t appear until her senior year. She did add golf that spring but, other than that and her time as a cheerleader, swimming got four years' worth of Biehler's undivided attention, and it showed.
7-Times a PIL Champion
In league competition, Biehler was never beaten in the 100-yard breaststroke en route to four PIL championships. She won three more PIL titles in the 100-yard individual medley and was a top-12 finisher at state all four years.
That success, of course, came with the aforementioned sacrifices and more. Practices began before school at 5:30 a.m., requiring wake-up calls typically reserved in those days for distributors of the daily news or dairy products. Weekends often meant Saturday meets or practices. And long hours in the pool required Biehler to spend additional time rinsing her eyes with milk to soothe the sting. "It worked," she says.
When she turned 16, Biehler’s parents did hand her the keys to their car but they came with the caveat that it only be used to get to and from practice.
“They were just tired of sitting on bleachers,” she cracks.
Swimming also brought the added benefit to Biehler’s parents of “keeping me out of trouble. I was always too tired to sneak out to a party or something,” she says with a laugh.
Despite her love of the sport, the grind led Biehler to a crossroads near the end of her high school days. She could either accept the offer she had received from Willamette University to continue swimming competitively in college or take a new path, one not defined by the floats on the surface of a pool and the lane guides beneath it.
“I remember thinking, I’m tired of that black line,” she says.
Hello College, Goodbye Swimming
Biehler declined the Willamette offer and headed to Oregon State, where she joined a sorority and had the time of her life. Outside of her studies, she devoted herself to playing sports like flag football, basketball and softball that had previously been out of her reach. She played football for the Delta Delta Delta intramural team and helped her sorority win two all-university intramural football titles. "I had a pretty good arm," she says.
After all those years competing primarily in an individual sport, Biehler loved the added camaraderie she found as part of a team. Coaching was a natural next step.
After graduating from OSU in 1978, she was hired to coach girls water polo for the Tigard Aquatic Club and quickly got back to her winning ways, which continued through multiple teaching stops, swimming and water polo coaching jobs and extracurricular activities.
“I probably had more success as a coach than as a swimmer,” says Biehler.
She led Tigard High teams to six Metro League water polo championships and a state title in 1984. That same year, she was selected to work with the U.S. men’s water polo team prior to and during the Olympic Games in Los Angeles. She went on to coach at Olympic festivals and work with the U.S. national women’s water polo team, traveling through Europe as an assistant coach and manager.
After earning a second master’s degree in counseling psychology, Biehler took a job as a counselor at Tualatin High School when it opened in 1992. The position came with a requirement that she give up coaching. She held several positions at Tualatin until retiring in 2011 and taking up substitute teaching. She retired for good in 2020.
“I spent 32 wonderful years getting paid for doing something I loved,” she says. “And I don’t think I would have had those opportunities if I hadn’t been a swimmer. That’s what drew my interests out.”
In her retirement, Biehler remains very active playing sports and working out, but she won't be found in a swimming pool. The former chlorine addict has kicked that habit.
“I think you could probably talk to any swimmer, now or then, and they’d tell you there comes a time when you think there’s more to life than going up and down that black line,” she says. “It just doesn’t excite me anymore.”
These days the “very happy 70-year-old” finds her excitement in other ways, like when she talks about receiving the call in 2007 telling her she had been inducted into the PIL Hall of Fame.
“It was shocking, shocking, absolutely shocking, but so exciting,” she remembers. “It continues to be a highlight in my life.”
Biehler has plenty of those, and they all serve to remind her that while that black line is no longer part of her life, she’s grateful for the life it led her to.
Do you know Robyn Biehler? If you’d like to reconnect, she can be contacted at [email protected]
Member Spotlight
Four things Robyn Biehler (Jackson, 1974) does not miss about swimming:
1. 4:45 a.m. wake-up calls
2. Homeroom wet hair
3. Ocular milk baths
4. The swimming
Still, given the chance to travel back in time the seven-time PIL swimming champion would happily do it all over again. Which is not to say Biehler wouldn’t change a few things, No. 1 on that list being she’d set the time-travel dial ahead a couple years…
… to when girls finally were given more opportunities to play organized sports and…
… after someone finally figured out goggles would be a useful accessory for water-based athletes and…
… ditto for blow dryers in girls locker rooms.
All this said, however, Biehler now sees Nos. 1 through 3 as relatively minor inconveniences, the small prices she was willing to pay for the joys and thrills of being able to compete in sports, period, let alone one she loved. As for No. 4, more to come.
Slim Pickings for a Sports Lover
The way Biehler sees it, her parents, Bob and Petie, "probably saw swimming as a way to wear me out," she says with a laugh. "I think I was a pretty high-octane kid."
Whatever their motivation, once Biehler dove into the pool at Portland Aquatic Center and started competing in the 8-and-under age group, it was hard to keep her dry.
“I became a chlorine addict,” she says.
Soon, she was carpooling out to Tualatin Hills Swim Club to benefit from the guidance of coach Rod Harmon while making some lifelong friends along the way.
“We all had to be standing in our driveways by a certain time, then someone's mom would pick us up and off to practice we went,” Biehler remembers. "We carpooled to both morning and afternoon workouts. I don't know how the moms did it."
Biehler loved the structure swimming provided and the competition and the clear relationship between the work she put in and the rewards she got back.
“What made me good was I loved it,” she says. “Practices, being coached, competing; I just enjoyed the time I spent doing it. Then when I would see time in the pool equating to success on the blocks at meets, it encouraged me even more.”
Swimming also gave Biehler an outlet for her competitiveness at a time when sports-loving girls like her often had to fit themselves into the few that were available to them. In eighth grade at Markham Elementary, Biehler was able to play volleyball on a team that won a city championship, but the sports pickings were otherwise slim and remained that way through most of her years at Jackson.
It was frustrating for Biehler, who was raised by parents who were former athletes themselves and had encouraged their daughter to play whatever sports she was interested in regardless of whether they were “intended for girls.”
“My dad taught me how to throw a baseball and a football and how to shoot a free throw,” she remembers. “There was no girls-don’t-play-sports thinking. He’d play catch with me as readily as he would my younger brother, Grant.”
Biehler says its likely she would have competed for Jackson in sports other than swimming had they been available -- “I definitely wanted more,” she says -- but those opportunities didn’t appear until her senior year. She did add golf that spring but, other than that and her time as a cheerleader, swimming got four years' worth of Biehler's undivided attention, and it showed.
7-Times a PIL Champion
In league competition, Biehler was never beaten in the 100-yard breaststroke en route to four PIL championships. She won three more PIL titles in the 100-yard individual medley and was a top-12 finisher at state all four years.
That success, of course, came with the aforementioned sacrifices and more. Practices began before school at 5:30 a.m., requiring wake-up calls typically reserved in those days for distributors of the daily news or dairy products. Weekends often meant Saturday meets or practices. And long hours in the pool required Biehler to spend additional time rinsing her eyes with milk to soothe the sting. "It worked," she says.
When she turned 16, Biehler’s parents did hand her the keys to their car but they came with the caveat that it only be used to get to and from practice.
“They were just tired of sitting on bleachers,” she cracks.
Swimming also brought the added benefit to Biehler’s parents of “keeping me out of trouble. I was always too tired to sneak out to a party or something,” she says with a laugh.
Despite her love of the sport, the grind led Biehler to a crossroads near the end of her high school days. She could either accept the offer she had received from Willamette University to continue swimming competitively in college or take a new path, one not defined by the floats on the surface of a pool and the lane guides beneath it.
“I remember thinking, I’m tired of that black line,” she says.
Hello College, Goodbye Swimming
Biehler declined the Willamette offer and headed to Oregon State, where she joined a sorority and had the time of her life. Outside of her studies, she devoted herself to playing sports like flag football, basketball and softball that had previously been out of her reach. She played football for the Delta Delta Delta intramural team and helped her sorority win two all-university intramural football titles. "I had a pretty good arm," she says.
After all those years competing primarily in an individual sport, Biehler loved the added camaraderie she found as part of a team. Coaching was a natural next step.
After graduating from OSU in 1978, she was hired to coach girls water polo for the Tigard Aquatic Club and quickly got back to her winning ways, which continued through multiple teaching stops, swimming and water polo coaching jobs and extracurricular activities.
“I probably had more success as a coach than as a swimmer,” says Biehler.
She led Tigard High teams to six Metro League water polo championships and a state title in 1984. That same year, she was selected to work with the U.S. men’s water polo team prior to and during the Olympic Games in Los Angeles. She went on to coach at Olympic festivals and work with the U.S. national women’s water polo team, traveling through Europe as an assistant coach and manager.
After earning a second master’s degree in counseling psychology, Biehler took a job as a counselor at Tualatin High School when it opened in 1992. The position came with a requirement that she give up coaching. She held several positions at Tualatin until retiring in 2011 and taking up substitute teaching. She retired for good in 2020.
“I spent 32 wonderful years getting paid for doing something I loved,” she says. “And I don’t think I would have had those opportunities if I hadn’t been a swimmer. That’s what drew my interests out.”
In her retirement, Biehler remains very active playing sports and working out, but she won't be found in a swimming pool. The former chlorine addict has kicked that habit.
“I think you could probably talk to any swimmer, now or then, and they’d tell you there comes a time when you think there’s more to life than going up and down that black line,” she says. “It just doesn’t excite me anymore.”
These days the “very happy 70-year-old” finds her excitement in other ways, like when she talks about receiving the call in 2007 telling her she had been inducted into the PIL Hall of Fame.
“It was shocking, shocking, absolutely shocking, but so exciting,” she remembers. “It continues to be a highlight in my life.”
Biehler has plenty of those, and they all serve to remind her that while that black line is no longer part of her life, she’s grateful for the life it led her to.
Do you know Robyn Biehler? If you’d like to reconnect, she can be contacted at [email protected]
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