Interview: Ashley Tappin-Doussan to Join Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame

St. Martin’s Grad and Olympic Gold Medalist is Fourth Announced Member of Class of 2020

NEW ORLEANS – Ashley Tappin-Doussan, is the fifth and final member of the Class of 2020 of the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame. The three-time Olympic Gold Medalist is just the second swimmer among the 240 members of the city’s sports Hall of Fame.

Each year’s Hall of Fame class is selected by the Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee, a group of current and former media members who annually recognize a variety of award-winners, including the Hall of Fame, the Corbett Awards and the Eddie Robinson Award. The group also selects the Greater New Orleans Amateur Athlete of the Month each month.

Overall, 24 individuals and four teams are being honored this year for their achievements. Honorees are being announced over a period of 24 days, wrapping up with the Corbett Awards for the top male and female amateur athletes in the state on June 10 and 11.

Outstanding Girls’ Prep Coach of the Year, New Orleans: Lakenya Reed, Booker T. Washington Basketball
Outstanding Boys’ Prep Coach of the Year, New Orleans: Nick Monica, Archbishop Rummel Football
Outstanding Female Amateur Athlete, New Orleans: Angela Charles-Alfred, Xavier University Tennis
Outstanding Male Amateur Athlete, New Orleans: Ja’Marr Chase, LSU Football
Outstanding Boys’ Prep Team, New Orleans: St. James High School Football
Outstanding Girls’ Prep Team, New Orleans: Metairie Park Country Day School Volleyball
Outstanding Collegiate Coach, Louisiana: Ed Orgeron, LSU Football
Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2020 Inductee: Perry Clark, Tulane Basketball
Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2020 Inductee: Tim Floyd, UNO Basketball
Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2020 Inductee: Rick Jones, Tulane Baseball
Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2020 Inductee: Craig Perret, Horse Racing
Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2020 Inductee: Ashley Tappin-Doussan, Swimming
Jimmy Collins Special Awards: June 9 (Tuesday)
Eddie Robinson Award: June 10 (Wednesday)
Corbett Award – Female: June 11 (Thursday)
Corbett Award – Male: June 12 (Friday)

Story by Will Peneguy of the Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee.

Radical change has constantly refashioned the tapestry of Ashley Tappin-Doussan’s life. Her first leap of faith eventually set her on the path that led the three-time Olympic swimming gold medalist to enshrinement as a member of the class of 2020 for the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame.

Born in Marietta, Ga., Tappin’s career began as a 9-year-old swimming novice in Tampa, Fla. She quickly emerged as a promising young star, but when she was 13, her Tampa swim coach Alan Smith took the head coaching job at St. Martin’s School in Metairie. Ashley and her mother moved to New Orleans.

“I was not born and raised here, so this is a big honor. I don’t have that legacy, and . . . to be from and raised in New Orleans is a big deal,” Tappin-Doussan said of her selection to the 2020 HOF class.

“I knew swimming was not as competitive in Louisiana as it was in Florida,” she said. “I was an all-star swimmer in Florida and I guess when I moved here it was big fish, little pond.”

In addition to swimming for St. Martin’s, Tappin swam for the Bolts Swim Team. “I moved here so I could swim for Smith, who took over Dick Bower’s Bolts Swim Team.”

Her 1988 move to New Orleans was a significant point in a career full of legendary accomplishments:

• The youngest swimmer to compete in the U.S. Olympic Trials at 13 (1988);
• Gold medal winner in the 1990 World Championships in Perth, Australia;
• Three gold medals in the 1991 Pan American Games in Havana, Cuba;
• Twenty Louisiana state championships;
• Six Louisiana high school records;
• A host of state open competition records set as a member of the Bolts swim team (she still owns 15);
• Three-time Junior National Champion;
• Two NCAA championships while swimming for the University of Florida in 1993;
• Five NCAA titles at the University of Arizona, 1995-1997;
• One of the youngest athletes at 17 to qualify for the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, where she won a gold medal.
• Two gold medals as a member of the 2000 Olympic 400 freestyle and 400 medley relay teams in Sydney, Australia;
• Induction into the University of Arizona Hall of Fame in 2005.

Following a freshman year at Florida in which she won her first two NCAA titles, Tappin made another leap of faith with a transfer to the University of Arizona.

“Arizona . . . turned out to be the best fit for me. Transferring is one of the best decisions I ever made,” she said.

Following her gold medal performance in the 1992 Olympics and leading up to the 1996 Games, Tappin was competing at an exceptionally high level despite nagging shoulder injuries. At the 1996 NCAA Championships, she medaled and scored in two individual events and three relays, anchoring Arizona’s winning 200 free squad in 22.29.

However, the injuries were too much and after the ’96 NCAAs, she had surgery to repair a rotator cuff, preventing her from joining the ’96 Olympic team.

After a layoff, Tappin returned to the pool, making every effort to reach her prior level, despite downplaying the arduousness of the rehabilitation and training.

“That wasn’t tough at all,” said Tappin-Doussan, who. “The tough part was manning up and realizing ‘I don’t want to have regret.’”

Once the young darling of the U.S. swim world — she was competing at junior nationals at the age of 11 — Tappin was now a “seasoned” swimmer of 25 making a bid to earn a spot on the 2000 Olympic team.

Change again was in order.

Once dependent on “grabbing as much water as possible” with a dominant shoulder and arm stroke, under the guidance of Bill Boomer and Milt Nelms she completely rebuilt her methodology to keep her core body aligned to minimize water resistance. “I learned to use my whole body in my swim and not just my shoulders and arms. Their work really helped change the way coaches taught swimming and helped me realize another Olympics,” she said.

Today, Tappin-Doussan and her husband Russell Doussan passionately pursue charity work through Hartley’s Hearts Foundation. The foundation is named after one of their twins born in 2010 with a heart defect, corrected by doctors at Ochsner Hospital. The foundation raises money to fund heart surgeries for children in Paraguay and Russia. They have raised money to help sponsor more than 100 surgeries.

The revelation to pursue this passion began less than an hour after Hartley’s successful surgery. As Ashley and Russell drove across Lake Pontchartrain to their home on the Northshore with Hartley in the back seat, Tappin’s life changed again.

“The voice of God speaks to both me and Russell at the same time and says ‘I took care of your child, now it’s your responsibility to care of those who can’t help themselves.’”

Before leaving the 26-mile bridge, “We had called our pastor, we had called the accountant to establish the 501(c)(3) and we had called the doctor.”

For Tappin, another leap — with faith.

The Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee began in 1957 when James Collins spearheaded a group of sports journalists to form a sports awards committee to immortalize local sports history. For 13 years, the committee honored local athletes each month. In 1970, the Sugar Bowl stepped in to sponsor and revitalize the committee, leading to the creation of the Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame in 1971, honoring 10 legends from the Crescent City in its first induction class. While adding the responsibility of selecting Hall of Famers, the committee has continued to recognize the top amateur athlete in the Greater New Orleans area each month – the honors enter their 64th year in 2020. To be eligible, an athlete must be a native of the greater New Orleans area or must compete for a team in the metropolitan region.

The Allstate Sugar Bowl has established itself as one of the premier college football bowl games, having hosted 28 national champions, 96 Hall of Fame players, 50 Hall of Fame coaches and 18 Heisman Trophy winners in its 86-year history. The 87th Allstate Sugar Bowl Football Classic, which will double as a College Football Playoff Semifinal, is scheduled to be played on January 1, 2021. In addition to football, the Sugar Bowl Committee annually invests over $1.6 million into the community through the hosting and sponsorship of sporting events, awards and clinics. Through these efforts, the organization supports and honors over 100,000 student-athletes each year, while injecting over $2.7 billion into the local economy in the last decade. For more information, visit www.AllstateSugarBowl.org.